Pastor’s Corner | Resolutions to make

— Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year?

How’s it going? The bad news is that 78 percent of us who make a New Year’s resolutions will not keep them. Most will fail by the time February gets here. So that means a large percentage of us have already quit.

What does that say about us?

It seems to me that life is based on success and failure. We are driven to succeed in all different areas of life. We teach our children and young people to be goal oriented and plan to succeed. Some would even say that failure is not an option, but the truth for me is that failure has been more the option than has success.

Do your past mistakes haunt you like an ongoing reality show that you are the star of and the plot thickens each week as your failures keep piling up?

What makes it even harder is that everyone else in life never seems to make a mistake. If you were really honest with yourself, you think that God could never use someone like you to accomplish His purpose.

Well, here is the good news, God really does forgive and forget our past sins and failures. God does love us even knowing the future failures that we will make, but we have to live like we believe it. One thing that I am really working hard on this year is not allowing my past failures to dictate how I will respond to present and future life opportunities. I admit that this is a tough battle that requires my flesh to battle my insecurities, but I believe that God wants the best for my life and so press on.

If you are in this same battle that I am in, can I give you some encouragement? Our past failures don’t have to keep us from having future successes.

Jesus breaks the power of sin and we know that “We can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us.” (Philippians 4:13)

Notice the verse does not have an asterisk next to it, that includes all this except for things that you attempt.

Call to Him and ask Him to give you the courage to attempt things that in the past you have failed at or things that scare you because it seems that you always mess things up. If you are a person who does not struggle with fear and doubt, then please encourage those of us who do.

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Editor’s note: Michael Smith is the youth pastor of First Baptist Church, Pea Ridge. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Church, Pages 2 on 02/09/2011