January marks a time of new beginnings. Every year millions of people commit to a new habit, to a new future. Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution? Better yet, have you ever managed to keep it?

Whether or not we manage to keep our new resolutions is besides the point. It’s always good to try. The Christian life is one of growing and becoming more like Christ. Sometimes it’s easy, but more often it is a struggle and it is something towards which we have to discipline ourselves. This is the process of sanctification–a process that will not be complete until we meet Jesus face to face in glory. Until then, it is good for us to strive towards becoming better people, better followers of Christ. It is good to develop new habits and attitudes that will benefit our spiritual lives.

Jonathan Edwards was one of the last great men of the Puritan era. His sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God led to a mass revival and began the Great Awakening in America in the mid-1700’s. Jonathan Edwards can teach us a thing or two today about dedication to Christ and taking our spiritual lives seriously. As a young man, he made an initial list of 21 resolutions that he intended to keep as a sort of checklist to diagnose his own spiritual health. He would re-read this list every week and adjust it as necessary. Eventually, he had a list of 70 resolutions that helped him gauge his own spiritual life. What follows here is his initial list of 21 resolutions that are a useful starting point for us today. (I have abridged and edited the wording into modern English, and also have added Scripture references. You can find the original list and wording with a simple internet search.)

Enjoy and be challenged!

The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are part of his will, for Christ’s sake.

1. Resolved: that I will do whatever I think to be most for God’s glory and, thus, for my own good, for the whole of my life, without any consideration of the time, whether now or in the future. Resolved to do whatever I think should be my duty and to do what is most for the advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, no matter the difficulties. (Phil 4:20; Psalm 106:1; Luke 8:39)

2. Resolved: to seek continually new ways or manners to promote the previously mentioned things. (1 Cor 15:58)

3. Resolved: if ever I shall fall and grow dull to the point of neglecting to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all that I can remember, when I come to myself again. (1 Tim 4:16)

4. Resolved: never to do anything—whether in soul, mind, or body—except what is to the glory of God. (Col 3:23)

5. Resolved: never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can. (Eph 5:16; Col 4:5)

6. Resolved: to live with all my might, while I am living. (Deut 6:5; Ecc 9:10)

7. Resolved: never to do anything which I should be afraid of doing if I knew it was the last hour of my life. (1 Pet 4:7)

8. Resolved: to act, in every respect, whether speaking or doing, as if nobody had ever been so vile as me, and as if I had committed the same sins or had the same weaknesses and failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings elicit nothing but shame in myself and let them only be an occasion for me to confess my own sins and misery to God. (Romans 7:24-25; James 5:16)

9. Resolved: to think deeply on every occasion of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which come with death. (Heb 9:27; Romans 14:8)

10. Resolved: when I feel pain, to consider of the pains of martyrdom and of hell. (Rom 12:15; Gal 6:2)

11. Resolved: when I think about any spiritual or theological idea that I do not understand, immediately to do what I can towards understanding it, as much as circumstances allow. (Acts 17:11; Col 3:2)

12. Resolved: if I take delight in something as a gratification of my pride or vanity, immediately to throw it away. (Phil 3:7-12)

13. Resolved: to seek to find out worthy objects of charity and generosity. (Luke 12:33-34; Romans 12:13; Heb 13:16)

14. Resolved: never to do anything out of revenge. (Deut 32:35; Romans 12:17)

15. Resolved: never to let myself be provoked to the least amount of anger towards pets, animals, objects, and fools. (2 Cor 11:19; James 1:19; Prov 26:4-5)

16. Resolved: never to speak evil of anyone so that it dishonors that person, whether more or less, except that it will spur some real good in that situation. (Col 4:6; Eph 4:29)

17. Resolved: that I will live with no real regrets when I come to die. (Matt 6:33-34; Phil 4:4)

18. Resolved: always to live in such a way as I think is best for my spiritual health, so that I might have clearest vision of the gospel and the world to come. (Heb 11:1-6)

19. Resolved: never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if I thought that I would soon hear the last trumpet. (Matt 5:23-25; Matt 24:42-51)

20. Resolved: to maintain the strictest moderation in eating and drinking. (Prov 23:1-2; Eph 5:18)

21. Resolved: never to do anything for which I would despise or think less of others who do the same thing. (Romans 14:10; 1 Tim 4:12)