Did you make any resolutions for the new year? About this time, many people who have made New Year’s resolutions are finding it very difficult to keep their resolutions. We’re a few weeks into the new year, and the changes we made on January 1 are starting to wear thin. Perhaps you’re not sticking to the new diet or the new exercise regimen. Perhaps your new budget is slipping. Perhaps you have already gotten behind on your plan to read the Bible in a year. Whatever your goals might be, the first two months are often the most difficult because you’re trying to develop new habits.
Life change is difficult, especially when you’re trying to make changes on your own. I’m sure most of us understand that we need to trust God when it comes to making changes in our lives, but it seems that many of us don’t understand that we really need to get other people involved in our lives to help us make changes.
James 5:16 tells us, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Sure, James mentions confessing sins to each other so we can pray for each other, but really, who among us is willing to share our sins when we hesitate to share the rest of our lives with others?
While only God can truly affect change in our lives, it’s pretty clear that we are responsible to help each other through those changes. Even when God makes changes in our lives, we need not only to confess our sins to each other but to encourage each other when we have triumphed over our struggles, when we have resisted temptation.
While we head into the last few weeks of developing habits to change the way we live–to God’s glory, right?–let us help each other by holding each other accountable. Let’s get to know our brothers and sisters in Christ in such a way that we can work through the struggles of a new diet, so that we can become more regular in our exercise routines, so that we can become more faithful in our Bible study habits.