Surrendering our New Year resolutions 

I would like to encourage you to lay down your aspirations before God, writes David Harris. Until we surrender all, we will remain the rulers of our own lives.

Just like me, I am sure many of us have begun the new year setting resolutions and goals that we will endeavour to achieve. But if we are honest, how often have we found ourselves lacking the effort and determination to achieve the very things we have confessed at the beginning of years past?

There is nothing wrong in setting milestones in life. However, I have found that at times our focus can be so set on arriving at a destination that we forget the importance of the day-to-day – driven by our passion to succeed, we forget the importance of allowing Jesus to take us on the journey to get to the place we desire. What do I mean by allowing Jesus to take us on the journey? I believe the foundation of the New Covenant life is to live in intimate relationship with Jesus. Before we reach a place that we may think defines success, ultimately I feel that God is wanting us to live satisfied in His person, content, knowing that in Him we have all that we could ever need.

From the very beginning of time, it was always God’s intention to live in a close, intimate relationship with mankind. We see this early on in the book of Genesis, where we read that Adam heard the sound of God walking ‘in the cool of the day’. The fellowship, which was broken because of sin, has now been restored to us. In fact, it has been restored to the point that God now chooses to make His home inside of us.

Jesus is longing for our friendship. More than us trying to become something in our own strength, He is wanting us to enjoy our journey in life by placing our faith and trust in Him alone. When Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit, He meant it, every believer has the ability to walk in
nearness to God and hear His voice.

We can only live in obedience to God to the extent we have heard His voice. In John 10:27, Jesus Himself says, ‘My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.’ In spending time with God and taking time reading the Scriptures in His presence, we make room for His voice to become the good Shepherd speaking into our hearts. Here we can begin to enjoy our journey with Christ.

In Matthew 10:39, Jesus says, ‘Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.’ In my opinion, the joy of our journey with Jesus is to live a life of surrender, a life that lays down all at His feet and recognises that without Jesus, there is no true fulfilment. Sometimes, it is when we give to Him the very things that are closest to our heart that we actually begin see God move in our lives. This is the reward of our journey with Christ. He is the One who is able to accomplish above and beyond what we could do in our own strength.

We have a God who is deeply in love with us. He wants to walk with us in every step of life and to be involved in all the details of our day-to-day living. As we turn our attention towards Him, our hearts awaken with His reality. I would like to encourage you at the start of this year to lay down your aspirations before God. Until we surrender all, we will remain the rulers of our own lives. It is only in living a life of surrender that the true experience of our union with Jesus will be found. This is where we can live hearing the very heartbeat of God. His friendship is so precious: there is no greater lover, there is no greater listener, there is none more beautiful than Jesus. My prayer is that this year would be one when we learn to experience His goodness, that we would live as intimate lovers and close friends with God every single day.

David Harris is the author of Rescue, published by Instant Apostle ((ISBN 978-1-912726-16-5, RRP £7.99), available from Christian bookshops and online 

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