From the Home Place

January 1, 2026

Happy New Year! – I hope???

May I suggest that before reading any further that you “pull your hat down and your boots up.” This could get a tad bit western:

According to Mr. Webster’s Dictionary, the word “resolution” means, “The act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones.” So my New Year’s resolution to lose twenty pounds of weight is a “complex notion.” The way 99% of us will make it “simpler” is to break our resolution within the first three days after making it. It is much simpler to continue to eat like I have been eating, to not exercise like I have not been exercising and to go on with my life like I lived last year when I gained the extra twenty pounds, all of that is much “simpler.” After all, another one of my resolutions was to make my life “simpler.”

Well so much for making another resolution that I don’t intend to keep. Perhaps instead of a hopeful resolution, I should make an absolute commitment? Have you ever noticed that the Bible doesn’t suggest that we make resolutions; however, the Bible does often use the word “commit.” Our English language would even suggest that the reason I don’t keep my New Year’s resolution is because I am not “committed” to keeping it.

To be “committed” is to “be determined to carry through, to complete, to finish” that which I have begun. To be committed is to be determined to bring to completion. I know, now we are all more confused than we were at the beginning of this conversation.

Summary, the best way to fulfill a New Year’s resolution is to commit fully to it. But here’s the catch: As I looked at the word “commit” in the Bible, almost every reference speaks of a negative situation. Here are just a few quick examples of the word commit: “You shall not commit adultery;” “do not commit this act of folly,” “do not commit such sin.” Of the 48 times the Bible mentions the word “commit,” one verse speaks of Jesus’ famous words: “into Your hands I commit My spirit.”(Lk. 23:46) and in Psalm 22:8, David states, “Commit yourself to the Lord.” Otherwise, every mention of the word “commit” is connected to words such as: “adultery; murder; folly; abomination; and lawlessness.”

So, from a biblical point of view to “commit” tends to be a negative, while the word “commitment” is almost always a positive. Perhaps the reason most of us will fail to keep our New Year’s resolution is because of our lack of “commitment.”

Once again, Mr. Webster helps us out, “commitment: a pledge to do something in the future.” You see my friends, because of our sin nature, it is easy to “commit” to doing a negative, but it takes great “commitment” to fulfill a positive. Perhaps the reason so few resolutions are fulfilled is because we wish to stop doing a negative that we “commit,” instead of “committing” to fulfill a positive? Once again, it is simply a matter of perspective.

It all comes back to King David’s words, “Commit yourself to the Lord.” Such a commitment gives strength to that which we pledge to our Lord. Here we go: The sin I “commit” is because of my lack of “commitment” to the Lord; and after reading all of this I should probably be committed!

When God called Joshua to “be strong and courageous,” God was simply asking Joshua to be fully committed to fulfilling that which God was asking of Him. Here’s praying that each of us will be equally committed to fulfill that which God asks us to do in 2026? More committed to commit less.

Committing myself to the Lord with you, Neal