By: Omar Miranda

Happy New Year! The old year is gone, and 2018 is here! I hope that as 2017 ended, you took some time to reflect and be thoughtful about last year and your New Year’s Resolutions. A lot of people break their resolutions pretty soon after making them. In fact, in doing some scholarly research (yes, there’s research on this) I found a startling and scary statistic: 80 percent of all resolutions are broken by the middle of February![i]

"All these are wonderful resolutions; and, to be honest, I don’t know which is most important."

Those numbers are absolutely dismal! So, let’s consider a crucial question: What do you think are the most important resolutions? Getting in better shape? Having better finances? Getting a better job? Cultivating better relationships with family/friends? Improving emotional health? Moving to another place? All these are wonderful resolutions; and, to be honest, I don’t know which is most important.

But I know which should be most important. The most important resolution should be to improve our relationship with Jesus! If we do this one well, with the power and enabling of God’s Holy Spirit, not only will we have a greater chance of effectively keeping it, but His Holy Spirit will also enable us to effectively evaluate and understand what’s happening in our lives, and what needs fine-tuning in order to optimize the impact of our lives for Him.

In 2018, why not make a new New Year’s resolution, and, like the apostle Paul, resolve to make knowing Jesus better our number one resolution? Here’s what he wrote: “But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to him. . . . All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life” (Phil. 3:7-10, CEV[ii]).

This year, this day, and every day, let’s make Paul’s resolution our own: to better know Jesus, love Jesus, live Jesus! It will be the best New Year’s resolution we’ll ever make.

Happy New Year!

Omar Miranda, a counselor and writer, lives with his family in unplain Plainville, Georgia.

[ii] Scripture quotations identified CEV are from the Contemporary English Version. Copyright ã American Bible Society 1991, 1995. Used by permission.