Casandra Martin

Happy New Year! Today 2014 stretches out before you with unlimited possibilities. This year is a blank slate, a new start, a chance to begin anew and let your heart take a new shape.

That is more hope than some of us feel like we deserve. We all desperately long for new beginnings. We ache for fresh starts and do-overs. But the baggage of the past has a stranglehold on our hearts. The weight of guilt and shame cause us to stumble as we seek to take steps in a new direction. Overwhelming, impossible, and defeated are the words that rise to the surface as we try to figure out how to take our hurts and let them heal.

Here is the good news God most wants you to know – He specializes in u-turns, do-overs, transformation, and fresh starts. It is His delight to walk into our messes, face our impossibles, and defeat our giants. We can’t, but He can. Too many times our New Year’s Resolutions are about rolling up our sleeves and working harder to be better than we were before. Too many times those kinds of resolutions are destined for failure before we even start. Deep down we know it, but hungry for change, we try anyway. There is, however, a resolution that comes with a guarantee. It is The Jesus Resolution.

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” – 1 Corinthians 2:2

My Jesus Resolution today is to recommit myself to living in The Jesus Resolution. This resolution isn’t about working harder, but surrendering more deeply. The call of The Jesus Resolution is to allow God full access to every part of my life and live wholly in the transformation He longs to work in me. The Jesus Resolution challenges me to give up surface happiness for deep joy, shallow living for the abundant life, and self-reliance for complete dependence. Learning to look like Jesus is the answer to the ache that is buried deep in my soul. Today I am going to let God take control of what I think, where I go, what I do, and who I am. My resolution – to look more like Jesus. Will you make The Jesus Resolution with me?