New Year Resolutions?

What does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

Happy New Year!

The idea of celebrating a new year has been important to people for millennia. Apparently, the earliest recorded festivities to mark a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years - to ancient Babylon - although this was then celebrated in late March at the equinox, when the day had equal amounts of sunlight and darkness. They marked the occasion with a massive religious festival.

According to tradition, an early king of Rome, Numa, added the months of January and February to the calendar in about 450 BC, with January 1st now marking the start of the year. This was partly to honour Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, after whom the new first month was named. It was believed that the god’s two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated each new year by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches, and attending raucous parties.

My little bit of research seems to show that celebrating new year has a pagan history. Where does that leave me, as a Christian, with making a New Year resolution? Do I get pulled into resolutions such as to lose weight or to exercise more - reasonable ideas in themselves, but probably not helpful things to allow to dominate my thoughts and emotions.

While I was thinking about this, the phrase “walk humbly with your God” came into my mind. I knew that it was from the Bible, but not which book it came from. You probably could have told me that I’d find it in Micah:

What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

What wonderful advice! I felt that this gives me the direction that I need. Not to think about what I want, but rather to focus on how God wants me to be. That’s what really struck me about this verse - not what we want, but what does God want of us?

Prayer - Heavenly Father, thank you that your word is full of guidance to help us in our walk with you.  Thank you for all the blessings of 2022 and we look forward to seeing your goodness in 2023. Help us, through the power of your Holy Spirit, to keep our thoughts and hearts focussed on you. We pray that how we live this year will honour the name of Jesus. Amen

Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash