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New Year’s Resolutions and Christianity

I’ve always felt that New Year’s Resolutions are perfect for Christians: we try to improve little by little and resolutions are essentially worthwhile goals for improvement. Of course, Christians should make sure to specifically focus on improving their spiritual lives when making resolutions or the point is moot.

So what are some great resolutions you should consider? I think there are a few areas we can always improve in: Prayer, Bible Study, and Personal Holiness. So I try to make a resolution in each area (at least one). And I’ve put some thoughts on each:

Prayer
- If you aren’t praying before every meal, this is a great resolution.
- If you aren’t praying everyday, this should be your resolution. It’s not difficult or too time consuming and the rewards are great. In reality, if you can pray every day for two weeks, you begin to form a habit, which makes it easier from then on – so be sure to focus hard on this the first two weeks.
- If you are praying everyday, make sure each day starts and ends with prayer.
- Really concentrate on how you pray. Try to pray that God’s Will be done, rather than for a specific outcome. We have limited knowledge about ramifications of actions, so we should trust in God to choose the correct path. In addition, remember to praise and thank God in your daily prayer and to ask forgiveness for sins.
- If you are doing this, then try to incorporate prayer into your daily life. For example, remember to say a quick prayer when you meet someone new or when someone has a problem. When you have a task at work or home, say a quick prayer asking for God’s guidance or help.
- Consider saying the Our Father prayer every day. It is the prayer Christ taught us and is full of theological insight that can be applied to our daily lives.
- Keep a prayer journal where you simply jot down personal notes from your prayers. This helps you to realize when prayers are answered and what is important to you.
- Resolve to add a prayer of thanks when something you previously prayed for works out.

Bible Study
(Note: start each session with prayer – this is important for personal interpretation of Scripture)
- If you aren’t reading Scripture everyday, try to start here. Just a chapter a day only takes a few minutes and can dramatically improve your understanding of the Bible.
- To be more aggressive, try to read the entire Bible in a year. Here’s a great guide that will complete the entire Bible in one year (it starts in December, but you can start in January and simply read December at the end). It’s available in PDF or Word format.
- If you’re already reading Scripture everyday, try to supplement your reading with additional resources. For example, read an overview of what each book is about before starting it or read Bibles with study notes included.
- To take study to another level, began reviewing words used throughout Scripture. For example, when a verse uses an ambiguous term or doesn’t seem to make sense, see how the word or phrase is used throughout the rest of Scripture. This often proves very insightful and can clear up issues. There are a number of online resources (search “Bible Gateway”) that make this easy. This can be as indepth as you like.
- Remember to try and apply what you are reading to your daily life. I recommend reading Scripture in the morning for this very reason – it’s easier to remember and apply it if you haven’t slept overnight since reading it. This is ultimately why we read Scripture: application.

Personal Holiness
- There’s an old belief that each person really struggles with one type of sin. If they can overcome this, then the others are easier to manage. Often the biggie comes from the seven deadly sins: lust, envy, pride, greed (avarice), anger, gluttony, and sloth. Try to figure out which one you suffer from the most and stop doing it. This is tied intimately into prayer.
- There are also virtues which we should aspire to. Try to choose one or two virtues to improve upon this year (the ones you lack the most). The virtues are humility, generosity, love, kindness, self-control, faith, temperance, and zeal. To improve, try to practically change your actions. I also recommend reading books about the specific virtue and how to increase it (there’s much out there).
- Try to avoid the situations that make you most likely to sin. In other words, examine your life for any situations that make it very likely that you will commit a sin; then avoid these situations as if they were sinful in themselves.
- Faith, Hope and Love. We can all improve here. Start by praying the prayer from Mark 9:24 daily for each of these:

Lord, I have faith. Help my lack of faith.
Lord, I hope. Help my lack of hope.
Lord, I love. Help my lack of love.

What are your spiritual New Year’s Resolutions? I’d love to hear suggested resolutions and especially those from past year’s that worked well. Ultimately, we’re all on the same quest for heaven and any help is appreciated!

God bless,
Jay