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BRINGING GOD INTO MY RESOLUTIONS

BRINGING GOD INTO MY RESOLUTIONS

Well here we are at the beginning a new year. Time to make some New Years resolutions if you have not done so already. Do you enjoy this ritual of looking back over the past year to find those places in your life that could use some improvement, and then resolve to do better? I used to enjoy making this list with items like more exercise, eating healthy food, losing weight, making more money, and so on. What I began to realize was that the list never changed. Year to year I would begin by resolving to change the same old stuff. I would begin each year with a long list of behavior modifications that I seldom thought of again until the next ?new year?. Why did I resolve to change my ways, and then fail to do so? If these changes were important enough to me to put on my list, why were they not important enough to motivate follow through?

Eventually I decided that it was just too depressing to keep looking at that same old list with all its unresolved issues. I should either do something to change things, or stop making lists. So I don?t make new years resolutions anymore.  Well, that is not entirely true. When a friend asked me if I had made my new years resolutions I said no. But then I realized that over the years there has been a change. I do make resolutions. In fact, I make them daily. I didn?t even recognize them as resolutions until I thought about it, because these resolutions are different.

My daily resolutions are different in two ways. First, I choose carefully what I would resolve to change, and second I have powerful help so, with consistent effort, I succeed (which is why I didn?t associate these resolutions with the new years variety.)  First, choosing what I want to change: No, I didn?t gain a better track record by making an easier list. If anything, I have chosen more challenging tasks. I am, however, starting to look carefully at what I want in my life and how I can achieve that change. What I see clearly is that I don?t really know what will make me happy.

I see that I will have to figure out what I really need in my life to bring me happiness. I haven?t been very good at this in the past. I have thought that happiness was being married to a certain man, weighing less, having more money, eating chocolate. I have been wrong about all of those as well as most other things I thought would make me happy. What I have been right about is listening to the Voice for God. A Course in Miracles has a passage that says: Only the Holy Spirit know your needs?.Leave then your needs to Him. So that is my starting place.

I will leave my needs to Him. I put the Holy Spirit in charge of everything, and I do this by bringing Him into all parts of my life. So, if I think I need more prosperity in my life, I ask Him to be a part of this. I ask the Holy Spirit to be my business advisor.  This requires faith because I am putting Him in charge and so I must have faith in His Love for me. In order for this to work, I must first believe that God knows more than me, and second, that God does not need sacrifice. Otherwise, I will be afraid of His answer.

The first half of that proposal sounds silly at first glance. Of course God knows more than me. I know that, don?t I? Well, now that I think about it, perhaps I have not always thought so. There have been times when I have asked God what I should do, and have provided the answer He should give me, as if I have a better answer than He. I then wait for Him to do my bidding, and when it doesn?t work out like I have demanded; I have thought that God wasn?t listening.

This is the ?vending machine? approach to God; put in your prayer, punch the appropriate button, and wait for your answer to fall in your lap. This is not really putting God in charge. It is really an effort to be in charge myself with God doing the work. Even if I get what I ask for, is it really going to be what I want? I can just hear God saying, ?This is what you have done before, and how has that worked out for you?? Oh my, I must be a constant source of wry amusement for the Universe.

If I am going to put God in charge of my prosperity, I must let Him answer the question. That means I will have to release all attachment to the answer. I have not really put him in charge if my prayer goes like this: I want to be more prosperous this year. Please send me more customers, a new job, the winning lottery ticket. I have given Him the answer because I am attached to that outcome.

I have been wrong about what I thought would make me happy so often in the past that you would think I would be relieved to turn that decision over to a Higher Power. Now that I look at it, I see that I need to turn over not only the answer, but the question as well. Here is what I mean. I have asked for more money before, and I have received more money, and that didn?t make me happy. How much is enough to make me happy? Maybe I have been asking the wrong question. This question comes with the assumption that I know what will make me happy; that more money will make me happy. So, what I am doing is loading the question so that I will get the outcome I am attached to. Do you see what I mean?

If I don?t seem to have enough money, it seems pretty obvious that I need more. It seems obvious that having enough money to buy new shoes when the old pair wears out would make me happy; having enough money to pay my rent on time would make me happy. Some of these needs feel pretty compelling. So it would seem that the proper question would have something to do with greater prosperity, and certainly God knows that while we live in this world we need certain things. But, what if I could be happy while I wait for the manifestation of what I need? What if I didn?t have to go through the anxiety while not knowing what was coming (or not coming)? What if I could be joyful regardless of what seemed to be happening to me? This would be real happiness. Not having my peace dependent on what is happening in my life would be real happiness.

So, I need a new question as well as a new answer. Instead of resolving to work harder, win bigger, or whatever I think will increase my prosperity; instead of asking for more money with the assumption that this will make me happier, I am going to make a whole new resolution. This is my resolution for the New Year. I choose to put God completely in charge of my happiness. I resolve to make no decisions about what would make me happy, and I choose to give up all attachment to the outcome. In my new resolution I say, ?God, give me your Joy, in whatever form You know I need it. I have absolute faith in Your judgment. I know You love me because I am Your child. I know You want me to be happy. I will not tell You what Your answer should be.?

Wow! That sends shivers up my arms! Are they shivers of excitement, or shivers of fear? I don?t know, maybe a little of both. It will take some practice on my part to leave all this stuff in God?s Hands. When I become fearful, I will want to take it back. Now is that a good definition of a control freak? ?Here God, I don?t think I can trust you with this thing in my life. Give it back, and I?ll worry it into submission.?

How about my resolution to eat better? What does this really mean to me? What am I asking for? I think that what I am asking for is a diet that contains plenty of chocolate cake, and that will make me skinny and very healthy. Amen. Even if I can get past what I want the answer to be, I need to re-think the question. When I ask for guidance, I hear the Holy Spirit saying, ?How can you use this issue to bring a clearer awareness of yourself in God??  That is the real question, because that will lead to my happiness. The answer I got to that question was to ask the Holy Spirit to be with me in this situation. I ask Him to eat all my meals with me. In learning to bring God into every part of my life, I am learning to make myself happy.

When I give the question to the Holy Spirit, He reminds me that Jesus said it does not matter what goes into the mouth, but rather what comes out of it. The Holy Spirit tells me that it is not my eating that needs His correction; it is my thoughts that need correction. He also reminds me that it doesn?t matter what form correction takes. This issue will be as good a vehicle to strengthen my spiritual growth as any other.

So, if I were putting this on a list of new years resolutions, I would change the list from ?I need to lose some weight and eat healthier,? to ?I will ask the Holy Spirit to correct my thoughts about food and eating, and I will do this by inviting Him to join me every time I eat.?  I am bringing God into the problem. This is now a problem that comes with a built in solution. I know what I want to accomplish and I know how to do it.

I?m starting to see a pattern here. I am first recognizing that I don?t have the answer to my own problem. I recognize that God knows what the solution is, and that His solution will always work, and will always lead to my happiness. I recognize that the first step in any solution will be to bring God into the problem. I recognize that my part is to keep Him there by not trying to take the problem back, and by not telling God what the answer should be; and, in fact, by not trying to define the question to predispose the answer.

Like all other forms of spiritual growth, this is going to take some consistent practice on my part. I have spent most of my life trying and not succeeding. I have done it one way and when that didn?t work, I did it the same way again. I might change the form a little, but the content has remained the same. I would decide what the problem was, I would decide what the answer was, I would give the package to God for prompt delivery.  I would rail at God for not coming across as requested, and then berate myself for being unworthy. Well, I?d given that process a fair chance to work; in fact I?d given it over 50 years of chances. I began to suspect that I might need to try something different.

This is where I am now. The last few years I have been learning a different way to make changes in my life. This new way is working a lot better. I am not doing it perfectly; it is an evolving process. The more I practice my faith, the stronger it gets. The more often I invite God into my life, the more clearly I hear His Voice. Hearing the Holy Spirit is a natural thing for us to do because God gave us His Voice to guide us back to Him, but if we fall out of the habit of listening, it takes some little effort to get back into the habit. The Holy Spirit is patient though, and works with us where we are. He will get the message to us if we want to hear it.

If you are making a list of New Year?s resolutions, I invite you to form the happy habit of inviting God into this effort. This year could very well be your most exciting year ever. Just make your first resolution that you will invite God into each area of your life. Do you have a relationship issue? Invite God into that relationship. Ask Him what He wants for you in this relationship. Do you have unresolved issues with people or circumstances? Invite God in. Ask Him for a solution-His solution. Tell Him you are willing to set aside your own solutions, and accept His. Do you have health problems? Invite God into this place in your life. Ask Him to heal the thoughts that support ill health. Ask Him where He wants you to go with this. Every problem has a gift to offer. Ask Him for the gift He offers you so you can move past this. Resolve this year, that you will seek for the joy that life brings when you invite God in.

© 2005, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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