Resolution Re-hab

40-45% of all adults make one or more resolutions each year. Among the top New Year's resolutions are resolutions about weight loss, exercise, and stopping smoking. Also popular are resolutions dealing with better money management / debt reduction. After 6 months only 46% of the people who have made these resolutions will have kept them. So for those of you who are not math geeks that looks something like this. If you have 100 people 45 of them will make at least one New Year's resolution. In 6 months of those 45 people 25 of them will have broken their resolution, and only 20 will have kept the resolution. Thinking about years past how many resolutions have you made? How many have you kept? Why do these resolutions fail?

If you really want to change this year maybe its time to rehabilitate your resolution.

As defined by dictionary.com
Rehabilitate:
verb (used with object)

1.to restore to a condition of good health, ability to work, or the like.

2.to restore to good condition, operation, or management, as a bankrupt business.

3.to reestablish the good reputation of (a person, one's character or name, etc.).

4.to restore formally to former capacity, standing, rank, rights, or privileges.

Maybe it is time to restore your resolution to a condition of good health, and to reestablish the reputation of a resolution. What if you looked at your resolution in a different light? Wouldn't it be better to say God I have so much in my life that I cannot take on without you. I ask you to be the Lord of my life. Lead me in my steps, in my thoughts, in my decisions, and in my actions. Lord this year it is my resolution to serve you first. To put you first in my life, and I know that through this one resolution you will change my life in ways I could never imagine.
As I look to my New Year's resolution I am reminded of two of my favorite bible characters, and I wanted to share them with you. First their is Jabez, found in 1 Chronicals 4:9-10. Author Bruce Wilkinson writes, "You'll find him hiding in the least read section of one of the least-read books of the Bible." 1 Chronicals is a book of the bible that does exactly what it proports it chronicals the family tree of the hebrew tribes. You have to read 44 names before you get to Jabez, you can open your bible and count. If you get that far you will find Jabez and instead of just a name with Jabez you find a short story:

^{1Chronicals: 9-10
9} Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” ¹⁰ Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

Imagine that, his mother named him Jabez; which sounds like the Hebrew name for pain. This young man more honorable that his brothers and God granted his request. Now if you read Bruce Wilkinson's book you will find he maintains that praying this prayer will change your life. I want to take a step back because for so many of us prayer is a missing part in our lives. Its not so much what you pray, how you pray, or when you pray; but that you pray. PRAY, everyday for one year. Seek God in prayer, and open your life to the way he will lead you.


Now for my second favorite bible character, he has his own book split into 42 chapters and roughly 32 pages depending on the size of print and the translation of your bible.
^{Job1: 1}
In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil
The book of Job goes on to list Job's riches and blessings. As you read this book you will find Job loses everything, and along the way his wife and friends urge him to curse God. If you read the entire book which I highly urge you to do you will find that after sending his friends away Job turns to God and asks question upon question. With each question Job grows closer to his final conclusion that God owes nothing to us. He owes us no reasons, no explanations and if he gave them we would not understand.
^{Isaiah 55:8-98}
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Yet after reading through this book and coming to the understanding that God owes us nothing we find how amazing God truly is. For even though God owed Job nothing, he gave him everything. New health, new business, new family, and a new understanding of life.
Max Lucado says:" God is God. He knows what he is doing. When you can't trace his hand, trust his heart.

So the second part of the New Year's Resolution Rehabilitation is all about trust. God has a plan, his thoughts are not our thoughts, so we cannot begin to comprehend why. God blesses us but he also leads us through trials. It is easy to trust God and pray to him in times of abundant blessings, but in times of trial so many curse God. Why would he do this to me? What did I do to deserve this? Take a page out of Job's book nothing you have done or will do will make you worthy of all God has given you. Even in your sorrow pray. Trust God let him lead you.


So my New Year's Resolution is simple:
1. I will pray every day.
2. I will trust God in every way.
3. I will praise him for his blessings, and seek him in my trials.

So I challenge you to some resolution re-hab.

Sara Groves
In the morning when I rise
Help me to prioritize
All the thoughts that fill my day

Before my schedule
Tells me that my day is full
Before I'm off and on my way

I want to praise you
I need to praise you
Let the first song that I sing
Be praises to my God and King

Before the curtains part
Before my day is starting
Before I make up the bed

Before the snooze alarm
Reminds me that it's morning
Before the dreams have left my head

I want to praise You
I need to praise You
Let the first song that I sing
Be praises to my God and King
(Praise the Lord, Praise Him)
(Praise the Lord, Praise)

Before my feet hit the floor, I'll praise you Lord, I'll praise you Lord
Before I fill my cup, I'll lift you up, I'll lift you up
Before I start my day, I'll sing Your praise, I'll sing Your praise
Before I start my car, before I get too far....