Gym owners love this time of the year, I an told. So many people take out yearly memberships in January to fulfil a New Years Resolution “to get fit this year.” Add that to the people who thoughtfully buy memberships as Christmas gifts, and it’s a golden time for the gyms.

Then, the story goes, by the end of February 90% of the people with these brand new gym memberships and good intentions just stop showing up.

It’s like that with most of our resolutions and intentions to become better people. Whether it’s losing weight, giving up smoking or drinking less, it is really hard to change our behaviours and habits. It is as if we become prisoners of our own choices.

In the Bible, the apostle Paul puts it this way: “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.”

We know what we should do, but often it is really hard to do, and we end up doing the wrong thing. Even with the best will, we find it hard to resist temptation, and we give in to doing the wrong thing, even when we know we shouldn’t be doing it.

Paul goes on to says this: “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”

The way out of these addictions to doing the wrong thing is to surrender them to Jesus, and ask Him to change you. Change comes from the inside and flows out to our actions not the other way around.

Now, where’s that gym card? I might just give it a go.