How to Keep Your New Year's Resolution: Lessons in Faithfulness from the Christmas Story

As we wrap the Advent season and look toward the New Year, many of us are thinking about resolutions. But here's a sobering statistic: less than 10% of people who make New Year's resolutions actually keep them through the entire year. Most people quit by the second Friday in January - that's January 9th!

What if this year could be different? What if we could learn from the Christmas story about making resolutions that actually last? The key isn't willpower or better planning - it's faithfulness.

What Does Faithfulness Really Mean?

Faithfulness means being "steadfast in affection or allegiance" and "firm in adherence to promises." But the biblical definition goes deeper. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that "faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see."

From a biblical perspective, faithfulness means trusting God and acting in accordance with how He asks us to live. The Christmas story is filled with examples of both faithful and unfaithful responses to God's calling.

Two Very Different Responses to God's Call

Zechariah's Doubt

In Luke chapter 1, we meet Zechariah, a priest whose prayers for a child had gone unanswered for years. When the angel Gabriel appeared to tell him his wife Elizabeth would bear a son, Zechariah's response was doubt: "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years."

Even though Zechariah had been praying for this very thing, when God said yes, he questioned whether it could really happen. His unfaithfulness resulted in being stuck silent until his son John was born.

Mary's Faith

Just a few verses later, we see a completly different response. When Gabriel told Mary she would conceive and give birth to Jesus, she had every reason to doubt. Unlike Zechariah's unlikely situation, Mary's was impossible - she was a virgin.

Yet Mary's response was radically different: "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" When the angel explained, she said, "I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled." Mary didn't respond in doubt but in faithful submission, even when facing the impossible.

Why Do We Struggle with Faithfulness?

If we're honest, most of us relate more to Zechariah than Mary. We question whether God can handle not just the impossible, but even the unlikely circumstances in our lives.

When facing challenges - whether it's finding housing, dealing with financial stress, or navigating difficult relationships - we often look at what seems unlikely to happen and question whether God can make it so. But faithfulness means believing that God can do unlikely or even seemingly impossible things if we trust Him.

How Can We Grow in Faithfulness?

Faithfulness Requires the Holy Spirit

Paul writes in Galatians 5 that faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit. Just like a fruit tree produces fruit when it's properly cared for and cultivated, the Holy Spirit produces faithfulness in our lives when we nurture our relationship with Him.

This means faithfulness isn't something we manufacture through willpower - it's something God cultivates in us as we depend on Him daily.

Faithfulness Takes Time

In our microwave culture, we expect instant results. But faithfulness, like any meaningful change, takes time to develop. As James Clear writes in "Atomic Habits". Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become."

You can't become faithful to God in one day, just like you can't get physically fit with one workout or become financially responsible by saving money once. It happens one day at a time, one choice at a time.

This is why Jesus taught us to pray for "daily bread" - not weekly or monthly provision, but what we need to follow God faithfully today. Then tomorrow, we pray again for tomorrow's faithfulness.

Faithfulness May Require Sacrifice

Being faithful to God isn't always easy. It wasn't easy for Mary to deal with an unplanned pregnancy and the social stigma that came with it. It wasn't easy for the wise men to take a longer route home to avoid King Herod.

But they were willing to make a sacrifices to be faithful to what God had asked of them. Sometimes faithfulness means giving up something good to pursue what God is calling us to do.

Faithfulness Looks Different for Everyone

It's important to remember that faithfulness doesn't look the same in everyone's life. Mary's calling was different from Joseph's, which was different from the shepherds' or the wise men's. They all walked in faithfulness, but their journeys looked different.

God may be calling you to something completely different than what He's calling your spouse, your friend, or your sibling to do. The key is being faithful to what He's specifically asking of you.

Life Application

This week, instead of making a typical New Year's resolution that you'll likely abandon by January 9th, consider resolving to be faithful to God - not just for a few days, but for the entire year ahead.

Start by asking God to show you what faithfulness looks like in your specific situation. Then commit to taking it one day at a time, depending on the Holy Spirit to cultivate faithfulness within you. Remember, it might take time and could require sacrifice, but it's worth it because God is faithful to you.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Is there something in my life that needs to be sacrificed in order to be faithful to what God is asking me to do?

• What hard thing has God been asking me to be faithful with that I've been saying no to simply because it's difficult?

• How can I depend on the Holy Spirit today to help me take one step toward faithfulness?

• What would it look like for me to pray for "daily bread" - asking God for what I need to be faithful just for today?

Faithfulness is hard, but you can do hard things. Why? Because you serve a God who has done impossible things, and nothing is too hard for Him if you're willing to walk with Him one day at a time.