Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. [Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)]
The tradition of New Year’s resolutions goes back over 4,000 years to the ancient Babylonians (whose new year began in mid-March with the spring equinox). During their 12-day celebration called Akitu, they either crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the old one. To ensure the gods’ favor, they promised to return borrowed items and pledged the repayment of all their debts.
Around 46 BC, Julius Caesar altered the calendar and began the year in January to honor the two-faced Janus—the Roman god who could look back into the past and forward into the future at the same time. Romans believed that the rest of the year would go pleasantly if that was how they spent its first day. Trying to spend January 1st as happily as possible, there were games, feasts, gifts, sweet treats, and plenty of wine while complaint, gossip, and quarrels were avoided. By making sacrifices to Janus and promising to live a better life, Romans believed the year ahead would bring prosperity and success.
Did you spend yesterday as pleasantly as possible—with no spats or spite? Did you start the new year with a resolution or two? While pledging to become a better person in the coming year or promising to return borrowed items and pay one’s debts are good goals for 2025, the majority of our New Year’s resolutions usually have something to do with health, exercise, or diet.
Before resolving to floss, eat more vegetables, or run a 5K, we should pray and ask God what He would like to see us change. “Search me, O God,” is what could be called a dangerous prayer because, when we ask God to search, we should be ready for what He finds. Chances are that it will have nothing to do with developing better dental or nutrition habits.
Asking God to examine our innermost being is like asking Him to perform exploratory surgery in search of sin. While a surgeon may not find a malignancy, God is sure to find plenty of areas in our lives that need excising or change. In medicine, a surgeon usually removes a malignancy if it is found. In God’s hospital, it’s a little different. If He finds disease or malignancy in our hearts, after pointing it out, He expects us to repent and turn away from it.
According to Drive Research, only 9% of those who make New Year’s resolutions successfully keep them all year. Sadly, our spiritual goals can fail as readily as the non-spiritual ones. For 20 years, one Christ-following friend has resolved to read the Bible, cover-to-cover; so far, she’s not gotten past Leviticus! Perhaps we’d do better if we remember that we can’t change by ourselves. While will-power alone might keep us away from Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kreme (at least for a while), it’s not enough when we’re combating spiritual enemies. Fortunately, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit and, through Him, all things are possible—even reading the Bible.
Let us remember that Jesus is in the business of transformation. He transformed water into wine, the blind into the sighted, the lame into the strong, and the diseased into the healthy. He changed the churning sea into calm water, a few morsels of food into a feast, and the dead into the living. Jesus’ miracles of transformation continue today. He turns darkness into light, anger into peace, fear into hope, animosity into love, selfishness into generosity, mourning into joy, shame into honor, and sinners into saints. If you’re still not sure what your resolution should be, you can always borrow Jonathon Edward’s: “Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will”
May you have a blessed new year.
The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul. [G. K. Chesterton]
As a teen and young adult, it was easy to be critical of my parents and their parenting. Vowing I’d never say or do some of the things they did, I was sure I’d never make any of their mistakes. Once I became a mother, however, I became far more forgiving and much less judgmental. Turns out, I made some of the same mistakes my parents did (and plenty more of my own).
For centuries, access to the written Word of God was limited to just a few. The printing press wasn’t invented until 1439 and, at the time, only about 20% of the population could read. As a result, churches were decorated with paintings, stained glass windows, statues, carvings, and mosaics depicting biblical stories or illustrating theological concepts. For people who couldn’t read the book, religious art told the story. Consider how the Stations of the Cross in Roman Catholic churches illustrate the events of Good Friday. Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words! While most nativity scenes are inaccurate, our depictions of the nativity don’t have to be historically exact to be meaningful.
The earliest known portrayal of Jesus’ birth is a bas relief on a Roman sarcophagus from around 385. It depicts the swaddled Christ child in the manger flanked by an ox at His head and an ass at His feet. Why are they present instead of Joseph and Mary? In 1223, Francis of Assisi brought some hay and a manger to a cave and celebrated Mass there on Christmas Eve. Even though Mary and Joseph weren’t present, an ass and an ox were! In 1291, Pope Nicholas IV commissioned Arnolfo di Cambio to create a permanent nativity. While there are statues of Mary and Jesus, Joseph, and three Magi, the sixth statue shows the heads of an ox and an ass rather than shepherd or angel. Besides the baby Jesus, the ass and the ox are the most ancient and consistent elements in depictions of the nativity. Why do these two animals, neither of which is mentioned in the gospels, have such a prominent place in our nativity scenes, Christmas cards, and carols?
It was a web day at the park and I don’t mean the world-wide kind. It was one of those days when the morning dew, mist, and light cooperated in such a way that we saw beautiful intricate spider webs hanging everywhere. Looking as if they were made of strands of silver rather than proteinaceous silk extruded from a spider’s spinnerets, it seemed like the spiders had decorated all the trees in celebration of Christmas.
Unfortunately, much of our Advent season is not spent joyfully looking forward to celebrating the birth of the Christ child. In hope of finding the perfect gift for everyone on our list, we pore over catalogues and search for sales and coupons. Either we fight for parking spots at the mall and spend hours standing in line or spend those hours sitting at the computer while shopping on line! We then fret and fuss over wrapping those gifts, mailing packages and Christmas cards, hosting and attending parties, baking cookies, making travel arrangements, decorating the house, preparing holiday dinners, and paying the ever-mounting bills. When we say, “Merry Christmas!” we might find ourselves mumbling a Scrooge-like “Bah! Humbug” under our breath! Instead of looking forward to Christmas with anticipation, there are times we can’t wait until it’s all over and done.
Devotions of the Heart 