We are several days into the New Year – 2017.  How are you doing with your resolutions?  Did you make any?  It is a common practice.  Have you ever wondered when the practice began?

In an article by Sarah Pruitt in History.com, the author gives this historical background to the practice of making New Year’s resolutions: “The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago.  They were also the first to hold recorded celebrations in honor of the New Year — though for them the year began not in January but in mid-March, when the crops were planted.  During a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, the Babylonians crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king.  They also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed.  These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions.  If the Babylonians kept to their word, [it was believed] their (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year.  If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor — a place no one wanted to be.”

Pruitt identifies a similar practice established in ancient Rome when Julius Caesar established January 1 as the beginning of the New Year.  “Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special significance for the Romans.  Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year.”

Pruitt also references the practice of “watch night services” in some religious denominations that often include readings from Scripture, hymn singing, prayers, and making resolutions for the coming year.

If Pruitt is correct, the practice of making New Year’s resolutions has been around for 4,000 years and has roots in religious practices.

Although the Scriptures are silent about an established practice of New Year’s resolutions, the practice of examining ourselves and seeking to follow God more closely is certainly Scriptural – and necessary!  See 2 Corinthians 13:5.

Yet, despite our best intentions and our best efforts, we fall short.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  We struggle with always doing the right things while shunning the wrong.  We struggle with sin.

But God loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16; Ephesians 1:7).  Through Jesus, we can have the forgiveness of our sins and receive the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23).

God will cleanse from sin and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from sin in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse those who continue to strive to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).

And as a result of God’s mercy and grace, we should resolve to follow Him every day!   Our primary motivation should be that of gratitude for what God has done for us in Christ.  “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

Won’t YOU accept God’s offer of salvation and life, and then resolve to follow Him faithfully?

-- David A. Sargent

* Sarah Pruitt, “The History of New Year’s Resolutions.”  www.history.com.  12/30/15.  See also Neal Pollard’s excellent reflections on Pruitt’s article in “The Religion of Resolutions,” Daily Bread (12/28/16), an e-mail ministry of the Bear Valley church of Christ in Denver, CO.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org