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(I posted this last year. With a little massaging, I’m reposting it. Hope you enjoy it!)

Last year on Twitter, someone suggested that “rather than making New Year’s Resolutions, we can choose to create New Year’s Solutions.”

That made me stop and think. What is the difference between a resolution and a solution? I looked up the definitions.

The dictionaries say that ‘resolution’ is a formal expression of opinion or intention made. It comes from the word ‘resolute,’ which means to be resolved or determined on a course of action, set in purpose or opinion.

‘Solution,’ on the other hand, means the act of solving a problem or question, an answer.

Only a small percentage of New Year’s resolutions see fulfillment, a humorous dichotomy, given its definition. Initially, most of them are launched with great intentions but slowly, or sometimes quickly, run out of steam.

Determination slides by the wayside. With little acting upon the problem or circumstance, the intended outcome is not accomplished. This is why I’ve never really made any New Year’s resolutions. I knew I would never keep them.

While solution infers the act of doing something, most people just have the solution compartmentalized in their heads or written down on paper. Wanting to change a situation or something about oneself and coming up with a solution to solve or improve it is still not the answer. Just because I WANT something to change and may be determined for it to be so doesn’t mean it WILL change.

I need more than a resolution, more than a solution. While both executed together are preferable, they must be backed with something more…they need to be backed by actual action. Therefore, the meaning of this scripture takes on a new meaning, “A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” (Eccl. 4:12b NKJV)

I think I’ve come up with my action, which is my theme for this year. I’ve borrowed it from an old hymn…I Surrender All!

Here are some beautiful portions of the song…

* Humbly at His feet I bow, Worldly pleasures all forsaken…

* Make me, Savior, wholly Thine…

* Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Saviour, I surrender all.

If I surrender all, then I cannot be a hindrance to the Lord’s plans and purpose for my life. If I do not surrender all, I allow my life to be filled with the same old things, carry-overs from the year now passed.

God said through Isaiah, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Is. 43:19 NKJV)

What exactly do I want in the New Year? Or more importantly, what does the Lord want for me and from me? How do I embark on an action if I have my fingers tightly clenched around all the events of the old year? Do I really want a new thing to happen in my life?

If I desire the best for my life, I must, as the saying goes, let go and let God! I must…surrender all!

Do you desire God to do a new thing in your life this year? Are you dragging all the hurts, sins, regrets, failures, disappointments, and unforgiveness of the old year behind you in a little red wagon or perhaps a U-haul?

Let this year be a year of release. Take action! Surrender it all!