Resolutions
Nehemiah 10
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| I pray blessings on you as you read. |
(v. 29) "all these now join their brothers and nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given to Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the LORD our Lord."
My Thoughts
Okay, now I know that is almost two weeks late, but maybe I can make it pertinent to right now. So hands up, who made any New Year resolutions? Okay, quite a few of you I see. Next question. Who, after the ten days that it has been since, has kept their resolution(s)? I see a few of the hands went down. Now let me ask you why? Are you able to answer that question?
The Israelites had disobeyed God and intermingled with the neighboring nations. The leaders had also done this and in so doing, led the rest astray. When this was all brought to their attention, they all made a resolution, together. They resolved not to do this again, and to follow and obey and love God. They kept their resolutions. All too often, we do not.
To those of you who have so far kept to your resolutions, that is great and I encourage you to continue! For those that have not, I wouldn't really worry about it. I don't make New Year resolutions myself because I never do stick to them. What I do instead comes from one of the pastors at my church. He calls it a New You Revolution. It is different because with this, you resolve to change yourself, rather than just do something.
What he suggested at the time time he spoke about this is to ask God for wisdom every day. That was three years ago now, and I can say that I have continued to do that from until now, minus the few times that I have forgotten. The point is that you want to change yourself, not just something you do. When you change your self from the inside, the outside will follow suit. Your attitude will change and so will your values. Your actions will follow as a result.
I we wish to change ourselves completely and better ourselves, we need to set goals that we can follow and will want to follow. I don't know if you ever heard of SMART goals, but it's something we used to talk about in school. If you're going to set a goal, then it should follow SMART.
Simple- Don't set goals that are contingent on certain things.
Measurable- Make sure that you are able to keep track of your progress towards said goal.
Achievable- Are you actually able to achieve the goal, or is it just something that you want?
Realistic- Be grounded when you set a goal and don't make a goal you know you won't reach.
Timely- You have to factor in the time your goal will possibly take.
This is a simple way to make goals and stick to them until you actually achieve them. Or you can be like me and just say "This is what I (INSERT GOAL HERE) and then do it. I don't know how it works for me, but I guess it just does. That's okay too, you can come up with your own way to set goals and stick to them until you achieve them. Be creative!
The Israelites had disobeyed God and intermingled with the neighboring nations. The leaders had also done this and in so doing, led the rest astray. When this was all brought to their attention, they all made a resolution, together. They resolved not to do this again, and to follow and obey and love God. They kept their resolutions. All too often, we do not.
To those of you who have so far kept to your resolutions, that is great and I encourage you to continue! For those that have not, I wouldn't really worry about it. I don't make New Year resolutions myself because I never do stick to them. What I do instead comes from one of the pastors at my church. He calls it a New You Revolution. It is different because with this, you resolve to change yourself, rather than just do something.
What he suggested at the time time he spoke about this is to ask God for wisdom every day. That was three years ago now, and I can say that I have continued to do that from until now, minus the few times that I have forgotten. The point is that you want to change yourself, not just something you do. When you change your self from the inside, the outside will follow suit. Your attitude will change and so will your values. Your actions will follow as a result.
I we wish to change ourselves completely and better ourselves, we need to set goals that we can follow and will want to follow. I don't know if you ever heard of SMART goals, but it's something we used to talk about in school. If you're going to set a goal, then it should follow SMART.
Simple- Don't set goals that are contingent on certain things.
Measurable- Make sure that you are able to keep track of your progress towards said goal.
Achievable- Are you actually able to achieve the goal, or is it just something that you want?
Realistic- Be grounded when you set a goal and don't make a goal you know you won't reach.
Timely- You have to factor in the time your goal will possibly take.
This is a simple way to make goals and stick to them until you actually achieve them. Or you can be like me and just say "This is what I (INSERT GOAL HERE) and then do it. I don't know how it works for me, but I guess it just does. That's okay too, you can come up with your own way to set goals and stick to them until you achieve them. Be creative!
Prayer Time
Now you talk to God about what you read, and you can even read this chapter of the Bible for yourself before you do.
Let me know your thoughts on this reading as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read, I pray that what you have read blesses and inspires you! Godbless!
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