Why I Never Keep My New Year's Resolution

How many times have I actually carried through with my New Year's resolutions? Let's see...

• One year I resolved to quit drinking coffee. That lasted almost three months, when random cheating lead to complete failure.
• One year I resolved to floss my teeth daily. I didn't do it then. I only do it now because I have braces and I want to have teeth left when the braces come off.
• One year (it was this year) I resolved to stick to an exercise routine. Uhhh... I still can't run farther than two blocks at a time.

I always know what I need to do. I know I need to listen more, be more flexible, work harder, give more. Knowing is not my hang-up. My hang-up is doing it.

When I read Romans chapter 7, I find the apostle Paul had the same problem. He said, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not" (v. 18). He goes on to echo more of my thoughts: "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do" (v. 19). Exactly, Paul, exactly!

By verse 24, Paul gets to the question I have asked so many times: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Tell me, Paul, what is the answer?

"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Wait a minute, Paul, is that an answer? You are thanking God? For what? For being a miserable wretch who can't even do the good things you want to do? I don't get it.

And I didn't get it for a very long time. I didn't get it until I realized that I can't do anything good on my own. That it takes a work of Jesus Christ in me to change me. That no matter how much better I might become that I'm still going to be mostly rotten. That Jesus Christ has paid for all my sin, past, present, and future. That more than wanting me to try extremely hard to be good, he wants me to try extremely hard to stay close to him. And I can do that.

Even now, even though I still am unable to do the good things I want to do, even though I still do things I know I shouldn't do, I can say along with Paul, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."