Tower of the Lord

With the coming of the new year people make lots of resolutions. Some resolve to lose weight and work out, others resolve to spend less money and eat healthy food. But whatever the resolution few continue in their resolve for long, in a few months they are back to their normal routines of eating, spending and not working out. Some might say that resolutions are pointless and others are afraid to resolve, so the question is, Do You have the Courage to Resolve?

When I talk about having the courage to resolve I am not talking about resolving to lose weight or work out, I am talking about resolving to be pure, resolving to give your all to Christ and further His Kingdom. It is not that losing weight is bad, actually it is desirable in 1 Corinthians Paul talks about how our bodies are holy and how we should take good care of them (1 Cor. 3:16 & 17). What I am saying is this, we should put the spiritual things before the carnal and the resolutions of the spirt before those of the body. Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” if we worry first about what Christ wants for out spirits then the physical things (health, finances, etc.) will fall into place.

I would like to issue a Challenge, I challenge you to make a resolution not a resolution of the flesh but one of the spirit. I challenge you to strive for purity, and commit yourself to the furtherance of the Kingdom of Heaven. In a letter to his mother John Wesley asked for a list of sins he should avoid his mother replied with this “Whatever weakens your reason, whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience, whatever obscures your sense of God, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, whatever takes away from your relish for spiritual things, that to you is sin, no matter how innocent it is in itself.” Think about that, that covers a lot of things. My challenge is this avoid those things, avoid the things that increase the influence and control of your flesh over your spirit, and take away your desire for God. I am not saying take it on all at once, start with the small things and go from there. Ask God for guidance and strength, ask for the wisdom and knowledge to stand strong and take out those strong holds one at a time.

The stakes are high and the risk is great, once taken this commitment will lead to death, death not of your spirit but of your flesh. This is not a resolution for the faint at heart, it will require Courage and Resolution beyond the physical. It will require supernatural strength from God and a ernest desire to give your all to Him. As an example I would like to use the story of Daniel and his friends when they were training to become wise men. The king of Babylonia told Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility- young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning [Daniel 1:3b-4a NIV]. Among these were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, instead he asked “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.” At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. Now you May be thinking “you said you were talking about spiritual resolutions, but Daniel resolved to go on a diet.” and you are partially right, I am talking about a resolution of the spirit, Daniel and his friends resolved to honor the Lord by refraining from eating the food of the king and instead devote themselves to God and seek first His wisdom and knowledge before the things of the flesh. What they were doing is fasting, not the kind of fasting where you eat no food but the kind where you stay away from things that your flesh desires and spending your time praying. You see the story does not end with them eating veggies for ten days, they continued this for three Years, however their fast was not in vain. Because “To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.” [Daniel 1:17a NIV] You see Daniel and his friends resolved to please God before men and before the flesh and they were greatly rewarded. They were set aside to learn language and literature of the Babylonians and God rewarded their Resolution by giving them more than they asked for. It took great courage to eat only veggies and water when everyone around them was eating steak and drinking wine, I would guess that they were made fun of, laughed at and scorned because of their resolution. Most likely they suffered from a great desire for the things of the flesh but they had resolved to do something and by strength given to them by God they had The Courage to Resolve.