Changing the Heart

So here we are a couple of weeks into the New Year. Did you make any New Year’s resolutions this year? How are you going with them?

It is widely reported that January and February are the busiest months at gyms every year. Millions of people decide they will get fit this year or change their lifestyle to be more healthy. Many gyms literally keep their business afloat with those beginning of the year memberships.

I was talking to someone recently who had decided that when a young relative received a long awaited surgery, he would give up drinking and smoking. It seems a funny connection, but he was feeling that the nephew would get a new take in life, so he should too.

This desire for self-improvement seems hard wired into most of us. We all feel like we could do better, that we have character flaws or that we fall short in some way.

The apostle Paul wrote, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This picks up on this feeling that we are not good enough. But then comes the good news: “Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” (Romans 3:23,24).

We all fall short of God’s standard, but He has made the way for us to be set free. That is what Christmas is all about; the birth of the Saviour who sets us free from our failings. At Easter time, we will celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ, where this wonderful transaction took place.

The relationship with God that comes when we ask Him to forgive us sets us free from the power of sin. We start a journey with God that changes us from the inside out.

A resolution can only change your outward behaviour, but God will give you a new heart.