For me, the beginning of a new year is accompanied by an undeniable urge to change. Even if I don’t set new goals or resolutions, I wake up on January 1 feeling a need to get my act together. Wherever I turn, I see posts about what others accomplished the year before and their big plans for the year ahead. Seemingly every advertisement is about a gym membership, a financial planning app, or a home organization system. I know there’s nothing magical about New Year’s Day, but it’s hard to escape the hype. 

There’s nothing wrong with using the rhythm of a new year as an opportunity to evaluate habits, set goals, and make adjustments. The problem comes when we expect a fresh start and our own resolve to be the source of radical transformation. We tend to expect our resolutions to produce big change, fast. But “prioritizing shocking changes steals our opportunities to see the active grace of the Lord in our lives and may cause us to minimize the importance of small steps of growth,” writes Brianna Lambert in her article “What Not to Expect from New Year’s Resolutions.”

Godly growth is usually slow, often unseen, and never the result of our own will-power. We can do nothing apart from Christ (John 15:5), and lasting growth stems from a lifetime of faithfulness and dependence on him, not a few weeks of motivation and high hopes.

So set goals. Pursue growth. Evaluate unfruitful habits and make a plan to establish profitable ones. But as you do, seek wisdom and help from the One who guides and empowers. Base your resolutions on the call to love God and love others. The transformation that comes from him is the kind worth having.

In Christ,