Article January 26, 2004 Issue

Getting to the heart of the matter

By Barbara Weigt

By the time you read these words, many people's New Year's resolutions, so dutifully and sincerely made, will already have been broken. Paper is piling up, missing buttons are still missing, letters remain unwritten, and physical exercise routines have been all but abandoned.

Several years ago, I became so discouraged with all the unfulfilled resolutions that I quit making any. The guilt and self-condemnation from broken promises were more than I could handle. Instead, it came to me to ask God to show me a verse from the Bible that would guide my thinking for the next 365 days. And each year as I began my regular Bible study, one verse would stand out in neon lights—my verse for the year. Sometimes it was a command, sometimes a promise. Often it was a simple prayer.

What I've discovered is that the words of Scripture are mightily life-transforming because they carry all the power of God's almighty spirit. That's what makes an idea from the mind of God so much more effective than a New Year's resolution.