I don’t make resolutions anymore because I don’t believe in them. If I didn’t think you would get mad at me, I’d propose that we put an end to these self-defeating promises that make us all feel like a load of garbage.

92% of all News Year’s Resolutions fail. The first 2 weeks usually go pretty well, but by February, people are slipping. By March the party is over. By the time January rolls around again, people find themselves even farther behind. For instance, if a person’s resolution was to lose weight, most people will not lose weight, but gain it. If a person’s resolution was to stop smoking, most people will not stop smoking, but smoke even more.

Resolutions do not work for a variety of reasons. For starters, January 1st is a terrible day to start anything. It’s cold. It gets dark early. January seems like it will never end. The ghosts of Christmas past is still lurking in our kitchens. If you made a resolution to lose weight, January 1st is an awful day to get started because you’ve still got all that candy, cookies, mixed nuts. You’re gonna eat them. You know you are.

The reason resolutions fail is pretty simple to explain. The fact is, New Year’s resolutions require change and we do not want to change. One of the things I have grown to realize is that people don’t change without intense pressure. One of the things I’ve grown to realize is, I don’t change without intense pressure either. There are a million reasons under the sun why we hate change, but no matter the reason, we do hate it. We do everything we can to avoid it. Making resolutions involves changing behaviors, plain and simple.

In general, we don’t change unless our lives depend on it, and even then, it’s rare. The truth is, I’ve been a stubborn, hot tempered firecracker since I came out of my mother’s womb. I came out yelling at my mother and I punched my twin brother in the nose for crowding me. There are some things I would have liked to change about myself a long, long time ago. But these things are about the same as they ever were; just a little muted.

Don’t get me wrong…I’ve changed through the decades, but some behaviors, which have proven themselves detrimental to me as a person, are the stubborn mules of my personality. Left to my own devices, I would have fundamentally remained the same person I’ve always was.

Looking back over my life, I can identify a couple of times I really needed to change and was only able to pull it off with the help of God. In each case, it was do or die. If it weren’t urgent, nothing would have really changed. I messed up so many things being the way I was and frankly, it was the way I wanted to be. I’ve had to change my behavior because I wouldn’t have been able to hold down a job, Jim would have kicked me to the curb years ago. If I had kept going in my own direction, I don’t know what would have happened to me. How exact Isaiah 53:6 is! We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way…

We think we have to power to change ourselves. We think we have the power to make people change. We think all we have to do is convince people how destructive their actions are, then

they’ll change. We think people will change if we yell at them or give them the silent treatment. We think people will change when they get married or have children. This rarely happens. But sometimes, only by the Grace of God people change.

In the year 2023, you can be one of those people whom God changes. Ezekiel 36:26-27 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. May God change our hearts in the New Year.