A Little Theology of Resolutions

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2014

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Seeking God requires firm resolve. But should Christians wait until the New Year comes around before making any resolutions?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Some Christians believe in and use New Year's resolutions.
0:08.4	Others are anti-New Year's resolutions.
0:11.0	We're getting a number of email questions on this now.
0:13.1	Pastor John, for Christians, are New Year's resolutions helpful?
0:17.5	Are they harmful?
0:18.6	Are they just a set up for failure?
0:20.4	Or are they simply unnecessary?
0:21.8	Well, as always, Tony, it depends on what you mean by resolutions.
0:25.8	If you mean declarations of what you intend to do by dint of willpower, then that will not
0:35.2	only probably fail.
0:38.7	If it doesn't fail, it's not Christian either.
0:43.9	So if it fails, it fails, and if it succeeds, it fails.
0:48.1	Because that's not what the Christian life is.
0:51.7	It's not live that way, not at the beginning of a year, not at the beginning of a day,
0:56.0	or beginning of an hour.
0:57.4	You don't screw up your willpower to obey a command and resolve to do a thing by virtue
1:06.2	of strong resolution and call that Christianity.
1:11.2	It's not.
1:12.4	The mystery of holiness is that we live our lives in the strength of another.
1:21.1	That is, we walk by the Spirit.
1:24.7	We walk by faith in the power of another.
1:28.1	We depend on another, namely the Holy Spirit, to do in us and through us what needs to be
	...

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