(This is a repost from New Year’s Day 2012- My Resolve has not changed and neither has my prayer…hope this encourages you today and always.)
In preparation for the New Year, I wanted to learn more about “Resolutions”…Not so much why we make them, but what exactly are we committing to when we make a “resolution”? What does it really mean to resolve to do something?
According to several online dictionaries and word origin sites, the word “resolution” is latin in origin and comes from combining:
solvo- to loosen, untie, and unbind
re- prefix meaning again
By adding re- to solvo, you intensify or strengthen the meaning. Resolvo– to loosen, to untie, unbind again and again.
This is interesting to me because resolutions are usually thought of as an oath to oneself…a vow, a binding contract with ourselves to do/or not do something. Once we commit to a resolution, we feel tied to following it through. How can this word that means “to loosen” serve to “bind” us to our goals?
As I pondered this, I thought about this passage from Scripture that describe this “loosening”:
10 Now He [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. 12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. (Luke 13 nkjv)
Like this woman, many of us have a “spirit of infirmity”- we have something that keeps us ‘down’, disables us from being able to raise ourselves up to our fullest potential. It is these things that we try to “loosen” ourselves from “again and again”…we resolve to unbind ourselves to these circumstances, habits, attitudes. But also like this woman, we cannot do this on our own. Whenever we “resolve” to do something (or NOT to do something) we must remember that a “spirit of infirmity” can only be truly “loosened” by the power of Christ. All of our plans, resolutions, goals, can only be found in Him. However, like this woman, we must also be listening for the call, and we must GO to Him, and we must acknowledge that we have been “loosed”! When Jesus said to the woman, “you are loosed!”, she could have gone back to sitting…after all, it was her familiar habit for 18 YEARS! But, she didn’t…she was made STRAIGHT…and she glorified God because of it!
What about you? Is there something from which you long to be loosed? Do you feel a spiritual or even physical tightness that is hindering you from glorifying God? I encourage you to become AWARE of God’s voice, FOCUS on His call for you to MOVE toward Him! Then, GO, MOVE toward His Voice, follow HIM as He raises you up, straightens and ALIGNS you to His Will! You will be “loosed” from the ‘spirit of infirmity’, FREE to MOVE in your life to glorify God.
Whether your infirmity is spiritual or physical, I encourage you to RESTORE your CORE in Christ by becoming AWARE of His call to YOU, ALIGNING yourself to His Voice, His Word, MOVE with FOCUS, PRECISION and CONTROL as His Holy Spirit BREATH FLOWS through YOU.
Here is a prayer that we said in church the other day. I share it with you in hopes that it will serve to “loosen” you from your “spirit of infirmity” whatever that may be for you..and that it will, instead bind you to the ONE that has the power to RAISE you up to STAND FIRM in the freedom that is made resolute through the CORE- Christ Jesus:
Lord, make me what you will. I put myself fully into your hands: put me to doing, put me to suffering, let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and with a willing heart give it all to your pleasure and disposal. (taken from Wesley Covenant Prayer)
Restore Your Core 