2 Corinthians 5:20

Happy New Year. So how are your new year resolutions going? Let me guess, you held on for a week or two, and now you are starting to feel guilty because you have abandoned them. 

You see the thing about new year resolutions, or just trying to make big drastic changes is that we think that once we have decided on what new habits we want to adopt, we can get through just by sheer will; just by making the pronunciation, “I’ve changed” we think it just happens. If you’re like me, you’ve even put in the structure to make it work: Go to bed at 10, study my Bible every day, pray first thing in the morning. And yet, the new and improved you refuses to emerge. Why?

Have you ever wondered why in Matt 6:11, Jesus instructs us to ask for our daily bread? To come back to God every single day and ask for that which we asked for yesterday, knowing we will have to ask for it tomorrow. That must be tiring and frustrating. Surely, He must know by now that we will need it tomorrow, and the day after? It is to remind us never to get so comfortable we believe we have provided for ourselves. When today’s manna or grace, or favour, is left over till tomorrow, you might be tempted to say, “oh, that? Yes, it’s my own from last week”, it was never yours. It has never been. It was always gifted to you by God. 

You see, the pride that sets in when we think we have done things by our power, blinds our eyes to the pitfalls that await us. We become so enamoured by our accomplishments that we ignore the character being built in the process. As new positive habits are being formed, you are also becoming a new person, a different person, a better person. Therefore, the character and the person you are becoming, are as important as the goals being achieved. And when you are completely surrendered to God, he will use whatever tools necessary to mould and sculpt you into exactly who he wants you to be, even if the sculpting process is painful. 

So, when you find yourself slipping, the resolutions failing, the old habits resurfacing, remember that you can ask for grace again today. Request today’s bread. Recommit to your resolution. You can begin afresh. 

Here is your permission to begin again. Today. And then tomorrow. 

Give us today, our daily bread – Matt 6:11 NIV

By Jennifer Aduro