Resolving to Surrender

I've heard both sides of the New Year's Resolutions debate.  I suppose the end of a year is a great time to reflect on one's life and determine changes that really need to be made.  And New Year's Day is a sort of turning point - a new year to begin new habits.  "Out with the old - in with the new" as they say.  

Do you make New Year's Resolutions?

I do.  Sometimes I list them and share them with others; sometimes I keep them more to myself as personal goals.  I might not succeed with keeping them, but that doesn't prevent me from making resolutions anew at each year's end.

My list might look a bit like yours.  Of course, after the holidays, one of my biggest resolutions is to eat more healthy and get more exercise.  Then I typically have on my list to spend more time in God's Word and in prayer.  And I usually want to de-clutter the house and tackle some large household projects.  I always attempt to treat people with a little more compassion and 'give back' to the world around me.

But this year I'm thinking differently.  I still resolve to do all of the above, but my main resolution for 2012 is that I want to surrender.  As I take stock of my 2011 and see the changes that I need to make in my life, I believe all of them could be accomplished if I'd simply surrender my thoughts, words, actions and life, more fully to Christ.  Surrendering to Jesus would not only take the pressure off of me to 'perform' my resolutions with success, it would give God permission to work in and through me - changing me from the inside so that I wouldn't have to perform at all.  Instead, God would do the work and I'd reap the blessing of seeing my resolutions come to fruition.

So, my New Year's Resolution List looks a bit like this:
#1.  I resolve to surrender my thoughts to Christ.
#2.  I resolve to surrender dreams and desires to Christ.
#3.  I resolve to surrender my words to Christ.
#4.  I resolve to surrender my time to Christ.
#5.  I resolve to surrender my actions to Christ.
#6.  I resolve to surrender my 2012 to Christ.

Psalms 139:23-24 (NIV)

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.