New Year-Time to Repair

Traditionally, New Year's Day is the day on which we review our lives. We examine our walls and our gates, as it were, reflecting on the damage and destruction that may have occurred, and we resolve to do better in the New Year. 

This practice of making New Year's resolutions has largely fallen out of style, however. It used to be quite common, but it has fallen into neglect. People break their resolutions so quickly they have given up making them, or else they have gone in for rather foolish, silly things...

                                         This last week I read of a recent survey taken of 200 people who had made New Year's resolutions last year, sincerely resolving to do better in certain areas of their lives. But the survey revealed that by the end of January half of them had broken their resolutions entirely, and none of the 200 made it through the first year! 

This would probably be the same story for most of us. The reason is, when you resolve to do better you are depending upon your own will power to carry it through -- and will power is what most of us lack. We find it more comfortable to go back to the old habits.

In the book of Nehemiah we learn the reason why it is difficult to keep New Year's resolutions; why there is so much failure in this area......

Ray Stedman


To read the book of Nehemiah go to:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+1&version=NIV


To read the full version of this talk go to:
http://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/nehemiah/dont-despair--begin-to-repair


To download this talk in a mp3 file go to:
http://www.raystedman.org/download-file?file=4157.mp3


Courtesy: www.raystedman.org