This thing in your life is the same thing that overpowers God's infinite power and desire to help you.
What is the enigma of overpowing God's infinite power?
The biggest reason people fail with their resolutions is not their willpower or mental fortitude. Good intentions are great, whether they’re for New Years changes, for picking yourselves up out of bad habits, or for spiritual repentance and commitments, they usually stem from your desires for positive change. However, the final results of resolutions vary a whole lot from person to person and within the same person it can depend on the goal.
Some people have exceptional mental fortitude or willpower to change their thinking and behaviors. They’re the ones that often outlast others when temptations come and can end up totally breaking out of bad habits or addictions. The rest, though, have varying degrees of success and fall short, some very short. A study found that less than half of people that started a resolution, completed it by year’s end, and a third don’t make it past 3 months[1.1].
For the secular world, these resolutions are often about going into a healthier lifestyle, such as to lose weight, eat more healthy things, quit smoking, or keeping to a budget, while for God-believing people, they also include issues of morality, like not cussing, controlling anger, and slipping in sexual sins. In my years of ministry, I’ve seen both groups of people totally fail in their resolutions. Some quit their efforts quickly, like shown in studies, only doing well for a couple months but then give up. Even followers of God who wholeheartedly want to do the right things do this, so I will talk about why most of them fail and how psychologists who study and counsel about motivation, self-control, and willpower don’t really understand the problem with why people fail.
What is preventing so many people from keeping to well-intentioned goals, especially devout believers who should be much better than everyone else in their fights with God’s moral laws? Christians should be amply strengthened with willpower, because they have God’s Spirit within them (1 Corinthians 6:19), as well as, God’s power on tap with prayers for help.
A popular quote from the New Testament is, “I can do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). That was a verse that stuck with me through my years as a Christian, not just because the church loves to use that phrase, but also because God often guided me with it so as to encourage me to continue on in my spiritual fights.
But despite the popularity of that verse among Christians, I often see them fail in sin, even with seemingly simple issues of morality, like using swear words and allowing rage and spite in speech (James 3:2-12). Why do so many people fail to change and get that self-control, which for Christians is a fruit of the Holy Spirit in them? (Galatians 5:22-23) Is it a sign for believers that they really aren’t saved in Christ?
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