Mark 1:4-11
How many of your New Year’s Resolutions have made it intact through the first full week of 2021?  Have you missed a day of exercise yet?  Have you stuck to your diet?  Are you texting less, communicating more, never gossiping, always telling the truth?  Most “resolutions” we make are self-directed: things like get thinner, work smarter, be stronger, take control of your life.  We want to make changes that will help us, improve us and bring us good feelings about ourselves.

What if instead of trying to live resolutions that make us feel good about ourselves we actually resolve to live in a way that makes God feel good about us?  What if we resolve to live a life that brings pleasure to God?

First of all, we are none of us Jesus, so we will make mistakes.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t try, with God’s help, to live with resolve in 2021, that kind of resolve that means in January of 2022, God can look back at our year of living and declare “Your life brings Me great pleasure.  Well done good and faithful friend.”