A RESOLUTION WORTH KEEPING!

Concerning the New Year

What if I could find one thing to do this year that will transform my life? That’s a tall order since the issue of resolutions surfaces every year on the heels of failed ones. The famous thinker, Anonymous, rightly declared, He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. Where do you want to end up at the end of the year? My desire is to be more like Jesus, to know Him better, to love others more, to live what I believe. That is a tall order that can be attained when we make right choices.

My resolution is to meditate on the Word of God

There are only a handful of verses in the Bible that include the word meditate. Two of my favorites are Joshua 1:8, This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success, and Psalm 1:2, but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. A brief reading of these verses reveals several points of meditation: the importance of the Bible, commitment to personal study, obedience to the Bible which is the Word of God.

What is meditation?

Meditation is personal interaction with the texts of Scripture. It is the practice of focusing one's thoughts on specific spiritual matters. Charles Swindoll, Meditation is disciplined thought, focused on a single object of Scripture for a period of time. It is more than just reading the words but understanding what they mean with the intent to obey. Meditation is the active use of the mind to engage God through Scripture.

Why is meditation so important?

Why can it be so life-changing to meditate on the Bible? Consider the following verses. Hebrews 4:12, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 2 Timothy 2:15, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Meditation is discerning what God has to say to us. Charles Spurgeon, To believe a thing is to see the cool crystal water sparkling in the cup. But to meditate on it is to drink of it. George Swinnock (1627-1673), Our design in meditation must be rather to cleanse our hearts, than to clear our heads.

Results of meditation

My desire this year is not just to know about God but to know Him. I believe that happens when I meditate on God’s Word. It is taking the study of the Bible and applying it to my life. John Bunyan who wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress declared, The end of study is information, and the end of meditation is practice. In 2026, I want more wisdom and personal application instead of endless information filed away. Knowing God is a personal choice. Jesus proclaimed in Revelation 3:20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

How to meditate

There are several things to do that will turn reading into meditation. Consider the following when you open your Bible

• Ask God to give understanding with the intent to obey.

• Read it as a love letter from God to you.

• Read the Bible as for the first time.

• Read it repeatedly, patiently and expectantly.

A meditation on God's grace, John 1:16, For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

• I am a sinner in need of a Savior, Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

• I was set free from sin and death by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, Romans 5:8, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

• The wrath of God was appeased by Jesus' payment for my sins., Romans 5:9, Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

• God declared me righteous as a gift of His grace, Romans 3:24, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

• Grace is unmerited favor, getting what I don’t deserve. Therefore, salvation is a gift of God, His act of grace received freely by placing faith in Jesus alone.

A meditation on love

• Where is love from? Love is from God. 1 John 4:8, Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

• How do we know God loves us? God's love is revealed in His actions. Romans 5:8, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

• What is love like? Love is visible. 1 Corinthians 13;4-7, Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not Insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

• Why is love so important? Love is how God intends for us to live. Colossians 3:14, And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

• Why must I love? Love is commanded by God. Matthew 22:37-39, And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

• How can we get this God-love? God's love is received through His Son by faith. John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

• How are we to love? We are to demonstrate God's love to others. Ephesians 5:2; And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

A meditative reading by Charles Spurgeon on Isaiah 40:3-4, A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

• Every valley must be exalted. Low and groveling thoughts of God must be given up; doubting and despairing must be removed; and self-seeking and carnal delights must be forsaken. Across these deep valleys a glorious causeway of grace must be raised.

• Every mountain and hill shall be laid low. Proud creature-sufficiency, and boastful self-righteousness, must be leveled, to make a highway for the King of kings. Divine fellowship is never promised to haughty, high-minded sinners. The Lord has respect to the lowly and visits the contrite in heart, but the lofty are an abomination unto Him. My soul, beseech the Holy Spirit to set you right in this respect.

• The crooked shall be made straight. The wavering heart must have a straight path of decision for God and holiness marked out for it. Double-minded men are strangers to the God of truth. My soul, take heed that in everything you are honest and true, as in the sight of the heart-searching God.

• The rough places shall be made smooth. Stumbling-blocks of sin must be removed, and thorns and briers of rebellion must be uprooted. So great a visitor must not find miry ways and stony places when He comes to honor His favored ones with His company. Oh, that this evening the Lord may find in my heart a highway made ready by His grace, that He may make a triumphal progress through the utmost bounds of my soul, from the beginning of this year even to the end of it.

CONCLUSION

• I don’t have the gifts of Charles Spurgeon but I am a child of God who can learn more about me and my God than I ever imagined.

• The Bible is not a book to be mastered but the only book that can master me. I want a resolution for 2026 that is worth the effort. Knowing my Savior better, serving Him more fully, being more gracious to others, I want that for me and for you. Let’s meditate on God’s Word and see what He will do in and through us for His glory.

• We who have placed faith in Jesus Christ alone have the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, interceding for us at the right hand of the Father.

• A. W. Tozer, Every man is as close to God as he wants to be.