Some Christians believe in and use New Year's resolutions, others are anti New Year's resolutions. We're getting a number of email questions on this now. Pastor John, for Christians, are New Year's resolutions helpful? Are they harmful? Are they just a setup for failure? Or are they simply unnecessary? Well, as always, Tony, it depends on what you mean by resolutions.

If you mean declarations of what you intend to do by dint of willpower, then that will not only probably fail, if it doesn't fail, it's not Christian either. So if it fails, it fails, and if it succeeds, it fails, because that's not what the Christian life is. It's not lived that way.

Not at the beginning of a year, not at the beginning of a day, or beginning of an hour. You don't screw up your willpower to obey a command and resolve to do a thing by virtue of strong resolution and call that Christianity. It's not. The mystery of holiness is that we live our lives in the strength of another.

That is, we walk by the Spirit. We walk by faith in the power of another. We depend on another, namely the Holy Spirit, to do in us and through us what needs to be done so that another, namely God, will get the glory. The principle, whether it's New Year, New Morning, New Hour, is 1 Peter 4 11.

"Let him who serves serve in the strength that God supplies." So you can paraphrase it, "Let him who resolves to do a thing or not do a thing resolve in the strength that God supplies so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him be glory forever." So yes, go ahead, resolve.

Paul put it like this, "By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them." So he gets up in the morning and he says, "What do I have to do today?

Well, I have to travel to Philippi, I have to make three tents tonight, I have to prepare a message for tomorrow morning. I resolve to do those things." And then he says, "Though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me." 1 Corinthians 15 10.

Or he says in Romans 15 8, "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring obedience to the Gentiles." So he says, "We're going to Spain, let's go! I resolve to go to Spain, I've got this ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named, let's go!" And then he writes, "I'm not going to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me." So his resolutions are empowered by, sustained by, worked through the grace of Christ, which is right at the heart of what it means to live the Christian life, not just make resolutions.

Philippians 1 12, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is the one who is at work in you." Which could be paraphrased, "Resolve, make a resolution with fear and trembling, for God is the one who's the making the resolution in you." That's the way to live the Christian life.

So my answer is yes, we should make resolves lots of times, not just at the beginning of a year. Whenever we feel, whenever we see something that we should be doing that we're not doing, we should resolve. Do it! Whenever we're not doing something that we should be doing and we recognize that we're not doing it, we should resolve.

Don't do it! Or did I say that backwards? You know what I mean. We got it. Resolve not to do what you shouldn't do and resolve to do what you should do whenever you see that you're not doing it or that you're doing it. God doesn't like for our hearts to be irresolute.

He says, "That'd be the opposite, wouldn't it? The opposite of resolving is to be irresolute, undecisive." And here's what Elijah said about that. "How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. If Baal is God, follow Him." So resolve this day.

Who are you going to serve? Get off the fence and follow your Lord. And I think there are a lot of Christians who are afraid of resolutions, and the opposite of resolution is not this wonderful freedom of dependence on God to empower them, it's sitting on a fence and not making any commitments to be or do a certain thing.

Paul said, this has been really important in my understanding, Tony, of tough decisions. He said in Romans 14, 5, "One man esteems one day of another. Another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." That's amazing! In other words, whether you go with saying, "All days are alike," or whether you go with esteeming one day above another, don't be wishy-washy!

Don't waffle, don't sit on the fence. God doesn't like irresolute hearts. Make up your mind. Decide, resolve, act. So David says to the counselors of Solomon, "Set your mind and heart to seek the Lord." What is that but resolve? Set your mind and heart. About Rehoboam, the Bible says, "He did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord." He didn't resolve to seek the Lord.

He just coasted in his life. So here's a theology of resolution in a verse, Tony. This is the most important two verses in the Bible on New Year's resolutions. So everybody should just go get their Bible, study these two verses, they'll have a theology of resolution. 2 Thessalonians 1, 11, and 12.

"To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and may fulfill," may God fulfill, "every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, that the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified." Everything is there. So here they are.

You should resolve for good. Resolve good things in your life. Second, this is pursued by faith so that it's a work of faith. Third, God acts through that faith by his power. Fourth, thus God fulfills the good resolve. Fifth, thus Jesus gets glory. That's the theology of resolution in two verses.

2 Thessalonians 1, 11 to 12. So my answer is not just at New Year's, but all the time. Whenever we see we're falling short, resolve not to fall short, and whenever we see something that needs to be done, resolve to do it. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.

So, Pastor John, what podcast do you listen to? Wait, I'll ask that tomorrow. Until then, please email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. You can visit us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge. I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

Thanks for listening.