DAILY HOPE DEVOTIONAL: JANUARY (2) NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS (2) SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 23: 24 – 25
Yesterday’s devotional was more wishing all our readers Happy New Year with brief history of New Year celebration and New Year Resolutions. In the records searched through, it is mentioned that New Year Celebration was of pagan origin started by the Babylonians and the Romans.
The Hebrew people celebrate what can be called their New Year celebration during September or October of our modern calendar; called Rosh Hanshanah. The focus of this devotional is not on how each of these nations celebrates their New Year but on New Year Resolutions.
The Babylonians would make resolutions to their gods pledging their loyalty to their Kings and make promises to pay their debts and return borrowed items to their rightful owners. To them this exercise would make their gods to favour them in the New Year.
Christians’ record of New Year Resolutions were said to begin in the 18th Century when they would hold mass on New Year’s Eve. During the worship, worshippers could reflect on the past year and make resolutions to do better in the New Year. The Bible does not provide whether the Hebrews underwent making Resolutions in their New Year celebration. It is usually a feast of blowing trumpets and observing Sabbath. Like all other things which progress through transitions, New Year Resolutions were adopted by people of different nations, religions and associations. The resolutions were all about making changes aim at improving self towards positive results.
The funny side of New Year Resolutions has been that most of the resolutions written or verbalize, were never faithfully executed. Many do not even visit the resolutions again few days after the New Years’ celebrations. Issue of making resolutions at the beginning of every year ended up as exercise in futility. We entered another New Year just yesterday. Thousands of resolutions have been written, stocked into drawers, others wrote and wave them to God and burn them so as to allow the smoke goes with the statements to God to act upon.
The devotional offers caution to Christians not to write New Year’s resolutions because others are writing; when they know they might not adhere to the resolutions. Next devotional will talk on Christians and New Year Resolutions.
PRAYER:
Blessed Father, it is more rewarding to execute promises made. Send your Holy Spirit to inspire me into making resolutions this year that will not jettisoned at last. I pray this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ.
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PLEASE NOTE: We will be resorting to Hope Weekly Devotional from second week of January.
bishopubaudenyi@hopealivechurch
