By Gina Caswell Kelly
Resolutions are always plentiful at the start of the new year. I heard a couple of business ideas having to do with resolutions. One was to start a “January Gym.” It is only open in January, and then when your resolve about working out wears down, you can always just say, “My gym closed.” The other one, along that same line was to start a gym and only charge for the days you DON’T USE IT! Ha! Both, solid business plans. I guess.
The sad thing is that so many times, we do not stick to our resolutions. We make a plan and have all faith that we will follow through, but sadly, so many times, we let it go out the window. The truth is that we do not have to wait for a New Year to begin a better life. We can begin each day fresh with a new plan for our life. We don’t have to feel like we are failures because we did not see our plan to better ourselves through. We can just begin again. That is what God does with us on a daily, often hourly, basis!
I believe that we are born with our life all mapped out in a big book. We might do okay for a little while, but then we veer off the road mapped out. What then? Are we just sunk because we didn’t follow God yesterday? No! Not even close. God knew we were going to do that. He offers us forgiveness and then turns the page in our book to start again from where we are. Every single day. We can never mess up so badly that we can’t find our way back inside His will. He is good like that! He wants good for us. So He finds us where we are and guides us back inside His will. We all mess up daily. We either do things we shouldn’t, or don’t do the things we should. Either way, God offers us a path back to the map of our lives. His gift of forgiveness is so amazing. He is waiting to guide us and forgive us every second.
I heard someone recently say they were afraid they were too far gone for God to accept them into His children. I told this person, that there is no way for us to ever be so far gone that God won’t forgive us and cleanse us from our sin and give us a new life in His Son. God’s grace and mercy are that big. We are never out of reach of the Savior.
As you start the year and work hard to keep your resolutions solid, think about the great forgiveness of God and the blessing of getting to start again every second of every day. His forgiveness and His mercy and grace make a difference!
