JOHN WESLEY: Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
DAVID MAINES: You're likely to fail at godly goals if you attempt to do too much - to grow in every area of your life. This year, narrow the search by choosing one character quality to work on. Map out a single-minded program of development. Do you want to become more loving? Design a prayer - type it out - place it where you will see it daily. Write out scriptures from Genesis to Revelation that speak of love. Reread these through the year. Think about a loving person you know, someone who can be a model for you. Finally, remember to put it all in God's hands, for the grace of God will be upon you as you work at developing that godly character quality.
ANTHONY THE GREAT: The blacksmith, who pounds a piece of iron, has previously thought about what he wants to make - a sickle, a knife, an axe - and works accordingly. And so let the man of God ponder in advance which virtues he wishes to acquire, in order not to toil aimlessly.
DON NATIONS: Do you have resolutions or plans for 2012? Resolutions are the things we hope will happen in the new year. As most resolutions do not make it out of the month of January, it is clear that these are mostly wishes for what will happen – hopefully without a lot of new effort of our part.
Plans are different. They are specific new actions that we are going to take in order to produce new and desired results. Plans set priorities and push us towards a specific goal. Plans are necessary because we know that if we only make minor tweaks to what we have been doing, we are not going to see the much improved results we say we want.
Do you have resolutions or plans? Plans can push us out of our comfort zone but they can also be the key to significant improvement!
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (ideas for New Year's resolutions):
1. Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.
2. Make the best of your circumstances. No one has everything, and everyone has something of sorrow intermingled with the gladness of life.
3. Don't take yourself too seriously. Don't think that somehow you should be protected from misfortunes that befall others.
4. You can't please everybody. Don't let criticism worry you.
5. Don't let your neighbors set your standards. Be yourself.
6. Do the things that you enjoy doing, but stay out of debt.
7. Don't borrow trouble.
8. Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish enmities or grudges. Avoid people who make you unhappy.
9. Have many interests. If you can't travel, read about new places.
10. Don't hold postmortems. Don't spend your life brooding over sorrows and mistakes.
11. Don't be one who never gets over things.
DAVID & KAREN MAINES: Goals shouldn't keep accumulating from year to year. They need to be weeded. Pull those that are purely secular - a drive for good looks or success. Those may make you perfect in some people's eyes, but not in the eyes of God. Godly goals have everything to do with obedience, sacrifice for the common good, serving others and serving the Lord, dying to self, developing qualities of character that are anything but ego-gratifying. Spend a little time with Christ in your goal garden. Are there weeds that he would like you to pull and discard?
HENRIETTA KERR: I think you will find that it is not by making resolutions in a difficulty that you will conquer a fault - tackling it, I mean - but much more by opening a window to Almighty God, and letting him speak to you. He sets us thinking and mending our faults by a quiet way which looks as though it had nothing to do with it; and then, when we come to about where our fault used to be, we find it gone.
GREG ASIMAKOUPOULOS:
Another year's been published.
It was one for the books.
It's bound to be remembered
so go ahead, take one last look.
Pages filled with busyness
paragraphs of fear
footnotes of regret
endnotes of prayer
chapters of contentment
indexes of joy
illustrations of amazing grace
in a most amazing year.
But all that's ancient history.
What's past is in the past.
It's time to write a sequel
filled with memories that will last.
Your table is unblemished
just like the days ahead.
So, full of faith and confidence
write on with ink or lead.
A PRAYER: Father, as a new year evolves, I resolve to involve myself in matters that matter, in concerns that concern others, and in issues that issue from your will. To that end, please send your Spirit and fill my heart as I start afresh to serve. Amen.
