I Am Resolved
Yes, it’s that time again. We have arrived at the beginning of the New Year. It’s that time in which we make our resolutions for the year. We have things we want to do, things we want to do better, pounds we want to lose, or things we desire to accomplish in the next 365 days. Many look at this as a period in which to improve our health and wellbeing. Some look on this time as a new start, a place in which to rid ourselves of old habits and to begin altering ourselves. The fact is that each day takes new resolve if one is going to adhere to the resolutions proposed on New Years.
Each new day presents obstacles to a resolution. Opportunities to fall back into old habits are abundant. The mind plays tricks, and convinces one of how much they need to do as before, or how much one needs a substance or situation to make their lives ‘normal’. Over the past few years effort to indoctrinate us was made as we were told “this is the new norm”. Can we not see that we establish our own “norm” (normal state)? Man was created with the capability to choose. ‘Free moral agency” is what separates man from the beasts of the field. We have to ‘decide’ and choose what to do in any given situation.
Josh. 22:5 provides sage advice to Israel as the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh were about to cross back over Jordan to their inheritance there. They were told: “But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” This sounds like excellent material for a New Year’s Resolution of our own. We are not under the Law of Moses, but are all now under God’s New Testament Law. We can each day, resolve to do as God Commands. We can and should daily resolve to love God, cleave to Him, and serve Him with all our heart and soul as His Word directs.
If we do this we are more likely to read, study and meditate on the Word of God daily to see what God would have us do. This was the advice from God Himself to Joshua shortly after he was tasked to usher Israel over the Jordan and divide the land among them as God had Promised. In Josh. 1:8 we read: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Surely we desire to be successful. Can there be any more prosperous or successful life than that of a faithful servant of God? Is any reward on earth greater that what God has set aside in Heaven for the obedient and faithful? I think not.
In 1896, Palmer Hartsough wrote the hymn “I Am Resolved”. We include the lyrics for this well-beloved, often sung song here.
1) I am resolved no longer to linger,
Charmed by the world’s delight,
Things that are higher, things that are nobler,
These have allured my sight.
Refrain:
I will hasten to Him,
Hasten so glad and free;
Jesus, greatest, highest,
I will come to Thee.
2) I am resolved to go to the Savior,
Leaving my sin and strife;
He is the true One, He is the Just One,
He hath the words of life.
3) I am resolved to follow the Savior,
Faithful and true each day;
Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth,
He is the living Way.
4) I am resolved to enter the kingdom,
Leaving the paths of sin;
Friends may oppose me, foes may beset me,
Still will I enter in.
5) I am resolved, and who will go with me?
Come, friends, without delay;
Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit,
We’ll walk the heav’nly way.
As Mr. Hartsough wrote this, he alluded to Phil. 3:13-14, the Spirit’s Words through the pen of Paul. This is sage advice today. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. All today need not only to resolve, but to do as God directs. Obey the gospel and enter the kingdom. Then continue in daily, diligent, and faithful service to God as He instructs through His New Testament Word. This is the only way to prepare for Heaven.
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
