To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfil every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 THESSALONIANS 1:11-12 (ESVUK)
Here we are at the beginning of another year, and it’s time again to think about making some resolutions that are actually going to make a positive difference in our lives. I know that New Year resolutions get a bad press because they usually don’t last much beyond the third week of January, but let me encourage you to make some resolutions for good.
In our header scripture, Paul is praying for the Thessalonian Christians, and us by extension, that we ‘may fulfil every resolve for good’. That’s a great prayer for us for the year ahead and shows that it is good to have resolves (resolutions). But these verses also show that while our resolving is important, it is God enabling us to fulfil the resolution that is crucial, otherwise Paul wouldn’t be praying.
When Paul says, ‘every resolve for good and every work of faith’, he is not describing two different acts, he is describing one act in two ways. It is a ‘resolve for good’ because we will it; it is a ‘work of faith’ because we depend on Jesus to give us the power to fulfil it. This is how we resolve – by faith in Jesus. Jesus is the one we look to when we resolve. His power is what we are depending on. This is what will ensure our New Year resolutions progress beyond January. The Old Testament wisdom literature tells us that: ‘We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.’ (Proverbs 16:9 The Message Bible).
Paul then explains that we are to resolve to do good: ‘…so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you…’ (2 Thessalonians 1:12 ESVUK). If we depend on our own willpower and strength to do good, then our names will be glorified. But when we resolve to do good and trust in the power of Jesus to help us, then it is Jesus who is glorified.
All Christian resolutions, including ones we make at the beginning of a year, are different from worldly resolutions. Christians believe that by grace alone we have been called: we resolve things not to make God be for us, but because he is already for us. He opens our eyes to see and to trust Christ. He shows us through his Son’s death on the cross that he is totally for us. All our resolutions are to walk in a manner worthy of this calling. They are faith resolutions – faith that we are loved, and called, and justified. And faith that Jesus will help us do what we resolve to do. When we resolve like that, the name of our Lord Jesus is magnified.
So, why not pause sometime soon, and think about how you can do good throughout 2025? God will be pleased with these New Year resolutions as we resolve to do them by faith in Jesus.
Prayer Loving Father, may we join in the prayer of the apostle Paul, that you make us worthy of your calling, and that we may fulfil every resolve for good, and every work of faith in 2025 by your power, as we seek to glorify the Lord Jesus according to his grace. In Jesus’s name, we pray, Amen.