I’m not usually very keen on New Year’s resolutions; by experience, I know that they are too easily broken. As a more realistic approach to making changes in my life, I remember the oath I took as a Girl Scout many, many years ago:
“On my honor, I will try to do my best: to serve God and my country; to help other people at all times, and to obey the Girl Scout Law.”
That vow to TRY seems a far more reasonable approach to being a better person than placing an impossible burden of “MUST” on myself. I know my human nature too well…
This year, however, I am rethinking my position on resolutions. A friend kindly gave me a calendar for Christmas. It sits on the desk, and you flip the pages to reveal each day. On each page are Scripture references (which if you follow you will read through the Bible in a year), plus a little spiritual message with which to start each day. In the past, I have often bought these for myself and for each of my children, but this year I neglected to do so and was very glad to get one as a gift.
This year, before you even turn the first page to the first day of the year, there is a little poem. When I read it, I felt tears come into my eyes. It summed up so well the lessons I have learned over the years.
“I Look Not Back”
by Annie Johnson Flint
I look not back; God knows the fruitless efforts,
The wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets.
I leave them with Him who blots the record,
And graciously forgives and then forgets.
I look not forward; God sees all the future,
The road that, short or long, will lead me home,
And He will face with me its every trial,
And bear with me the burdens that may come.
But I look up! Into the face of Jesus,
For there my heart can rest, my fears are stilled;
And there is joy, and love, and light for darkness,
And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled.
The author speaks to my experience as well as her own. There is no point in spending time looking back; we can’t change those things in the past which we have done and which we know have not pleased Him. We can, instead, look up to Jesus, the One Who has already paid the price for those sins; the One Who has purchased our forgiveness with His blood. All those things ~ the bad choices, the rebelliousness, the insistence on having our own way rather than His way ~ all those things have been forgiven and forgotten because of the mercy and grace of God, and His love for us. We are free because Jesus has loved us unto death, and risen from the dead to sit on the right hand of God the Father.
We do not need to fear the present. He has promised to provide our every need (if not all our wants), and we can trust Him to keep His word. Even if the sin of the world or the arrows from the evil one strike us and problems surround us and we are afraid, He promises to be with us. We need not go through anything completely alone. We can lean on Him; He will be our strength and comforter and will share all our burdens as we travel the rocky path together.
We need not worry about the future. He holds all things in His hand and has promised us a place with Him. As we look around us and see frightening changes happening ~ the storms and earthquakes, the wars and rumors of wars, the plagues of previously unknown diseases ~ we know these are possibly the warning signs of things to come which do not look good for much of humanity, but which may signal the nearness of His coming. It is all in His Hands, and we can trust His timing and His wisdom. We do not need to worry about the future: even if our bodies die, our spirits will continue and we will be with the Lord.
I have lived almost ninety years on this earth, and looking back it seems just a moment. In all that time I have seen Him work each day in my life: teaching and guiding and providing for me, even if I was not always aware of Him. He has never failed me yet. My failures have always been because I forgot to keep my eyes on Him. I resolve: to try to remember to keep looking up and to acknowledge Who is in charge, and most of all, to be grateful.