The calendar year 2021 has just started, and usually you hear about the resolutions that people make, with the hope for a better year. The “better” could be anything; usually a better-paying job, a house, marriage, good health, or just personal goals in life.
While studies have shown that most of these resolutions are never achieved during a given year, people still make them. It’s a habit or tradition that goes way back. About 24-30 million resolutions will be made for the new calendar year 2021. An estimated 10% will not come true, according to University of Scranton Psychology Professor John C. Norcross.
Dr. Susan Weinchenk, writing in the magazine Psychology Today, says there are a number of scientific reasons why New Year’s resolutions don’t work for the following reasons.
- Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not hard to change habits IF you do so based on science.
- To change a new habit you essentially have to create a new one, so whether you are changing an existing habit or creating a new one, the “scientific” method for doing so is the same.
- You have already created literally HUNDREDS of habits that you have now, and you don’t even remember how they got started, so creating habits can’t be that hard or you wouldn’t have so many of them! If anyone is serious about changing a habit, they have to create new ones by “picking a small action; attaching the new action to a previous habit; make the new action EASY to do for at least the first week.”
We are in the midst of a pandemic that has been changing our lifestyles over the past several months, heading towards a year. People are becoming more and more frustrated to any kind of adjustment they have to make to their lifestyle. This new norm is not a welcome move by hardly anyone, because it means giving up something; it could be attending a sports event, movie, visiting friends, vacationing, or simply the freedom to move about.
I want to believe that the number one New Year wish for people, this year, would be for the COVID-19 virus to disappear as quickly as it came upon us. I would be in no way surprise if people are fervently wishing happy riddance in order to have a “happy new year.” There should be no one wishing for it to remain with us, even for another day. But there is no magic wand to get rid of this pestilence.
The only way it could be wiped out in an instant is by the mighty hand of God – divine intervention. God can intervene if He wishes, but I have a notion He won’t, at this time. You see God allows experiences like this to happen for a reason. He is a God of purpose. I don’t believe He sent this plaque upon us, but He allowed it to enter our lives for a purpose – a purpose we cannot understand, at least not just now.
Is. 59:1, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. 4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.”
Can anything good come out of COVID-19? I believe so. Romans 8:24, “24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
There is a purpose to COVID-19. While you can hope, or preferably pray, for it to disappear, and never to return, you can use the extra time you now have at home to answer God’s call. In so doing, you would be one of the wise to understand that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” For more on this subject, download FREE our booklet, THE AWESOME POWER OF GOD.
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