God Wants Your Resolve - Ask Pastor John

Video from Desiring God

God Wants Your Resolve - Ask Pastor John

Audio Transcript

"Well, I doubt any of you expect to build a successful career by accident. It comes from years of training and planning and seeking out the right positions and opportunities. So, why would we treat our joy any differently? Today on Ask Pastor John, John Piper argues that deep Christian joy doesn’t happen by chance. It requires a plan. And he gives us a biblical blueprint for building it intentionally.

Speaking of intention and resolve, if you have been blessed by free access to our resources and you want to offset for others “the cost of free,” as we’re calling it, consider a one-time gift or monthly gift to help support everything we do. You can make that gift or set up monthly giving right now at give.desiringGod.org. Your financial support helps us distribute our resources around the globe.

We’re talking resolutions today. And there’s a cultural divide over New Year’s resolutions. Some people approach this time of year with unshakable optimism, eager to set ambitious goals for self-improvement, personal growth, and spiritual development, fully believing in the power of a fresh start. Others scoff at the very idea, seeing resolutions as an exercise in futility, a well-intentioned yet inevitable path to disappointment and failure by mid-February. Then there’s the group that dismisses resolutions entirely, viewing them as nothing more than a passing cultural trend — a fleeting fad that holds little lasting value.

And so, we’re left with a pressing question: In the Christian life, can New Year’s resolutions serve a meaningful purpose in helping to align our lives with God’s will, or do they often lead to frustration and spiritual burnout? Are they truly helpful in fostering growth and obedience, or are they ultimately harmful, perhaps setting us up for inevitable failure in our pursuit of holiness? And as we seek to approach this topic from a biblical perspective, how does Scripture guide us in navigating the art of goal-setting, resolutions, and the pursuit of personal change in a way that honors God and reflects the grace he offers?

Willpower vs. Christianity

Well, as always, Tony, it depends on what you mean by resolutions. If you mean “declaration of what you intend to do by dint of willpower,” then not only will it probably fail, but if it doesn’t fail, it’s not Christian. 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, not at the 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 (the Holy Spirit) to do in us and through us what needs to be done so that another (God) will get the glory. The principle, whether it’s New Year, new morning, or new hour, is 1 Peter 4:11: “[Let him who] serves [serve] by the strength that God supplies.” So, you could 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.”

Resolve by Grace

Yes, go ahead and 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” (1 Corinthians 15:10). 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 15:18, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience.” 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.”

“The mystery of holiness is that we live our lives in the strength of another.”

So, his resolutions are empowered by, sustained by, and 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 2:12–13 says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you,” which could be paraphrased, “Resolve — make a resolution — with fear and trembling, for God is the one who’s making the resolution in you.” That’s the way to live the Christian life.

Be Fully Convinced

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 doing something that we should not be doing, and we recognize that we’re doing it, we should resolve, “Don’t do 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. 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; but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). So, resolve this day whom you’re going to serve. Get off the fence and follow your Lord.

I think there are a lot of Christians who are afraid of resolutions. But the opposite of a resolution is not this wonderful freedom of dependence on God to empower them; it’s sitting on the 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 — in Romans 14:5, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced 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” (1 Chronicles 22:19). What is that but resolve? Set your mind and heart. The Bible says about Rehoboam, “He did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord” (2 Chronicles 12:14). He didn’t resolve to seek the Lord; he just coasted in his life.

A Theology of Resolutions

Here’s a theology of resolution in two verses, Tony. These are the two most important verses in the Bible on New Year’s resolutions. So, everybody should just go get their Bible, study these two verses, and they’ll have a theology of resolutions. The two verses are 2 Thessalonians 1:11–12: “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified.”

Everything is there. Here they are:

You should resolve for good. Resolve good things in your life.

This is pursued by faith so that it’s a work of faith.

God acts through that faith by his power.

Thus, God fulfills the good resolve.

Thus, Jesus gets glory.

That’s the theology of resolution in two verses, 2 Thessalonians 1:11–12. So, my answer is this: Make resolutions — not just at New Year’s but all the time. Whenever you see you’re falling short, resolve not to fall short. And whenever you see something that needs to be done, resolve to do it." from the Transcript

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy. Read more about John.

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