Thoughts on Resolutions


We often minimize our momentary choices when we do something wonderful in the moment, but we allow a poor choice in a moment to spell disaster for the day or more. It is an odd way that we have of thinking about time.
God has shown me that THIS moment, THIS choice, THIS momentary surrender, THIS babystep…it matters as it is one step closer to a softened heart. It DOES matter. 

Likewise, one bite that I take when my heart is convicted isn’t just a mere bite…the caloric content of one bite of almost anything is negligible, but what happens with a choice to disregard the Spirit’s tender conviction is another layer of a callus is placed on my heart…eventually, my heart will be hardened to my Shepherd’s sweet voice if I keep ignoring what he says! Not because of the food, but because of the choice to say NO to Him! No matter what it is He directs me about!

God would do ANYthing for my heart, so that one little choice that seems so minimal that disregards the sacrifice he has made for me…it is actually HUGE…and the tiny little choice that I make to deny self and to say yes to God in this moment…it isn’t so tiny…it is HUGE as it aligns with his purposes for allowing Jesus to be tormented and to die for me. He delights in my taking captive THIS moment for Him! He purchased me. He chose to come to earth so that sin would be defeated and I could have a relationship with him, walking moment-by-moment with Him, keeping in step with the Spirit as I listen to my Shepherd’s voice and respond accordingly. When I choose, in this moment, to cooperate with this, it thrills His heart! THIS is what matters! THIS moment! Not all the moments that came before. Once they are gone, they are history. I don’t have to pay a penalty for indiscretions made a moment ago, an hour ago, 10 years ago. Yes, there may be consequences, but in Christ, I can observe, correct, move forward in THIS moment! Take captive my thoughts NOW!



Every single solitary choice matters, but not because of what it does to my *body*!!! It is because of what it does to my ****heart****!!!! Oh! I wish I could grasp this fully! He cares soooo much about our hearts!!!! If it is about my body and what I think of being thin or fat or fit at any given time, then it is so negotiable! How I feel about being fat or thin may change at any given point just based upon what I have been reading, who I hang around with, how good I think I look in a certain outfit now, and what food is presented. My feelings about that are fickle, at best. 

But if it is about the condition of my heart with respect to my Lord (and it is), then the “motivation” to say YES to him NEVER goes away! He cares CONSTANTLY! 

If I lament that I don’t ever seem to have a “good eating day” or that I start the day well, but then get derailed by 11am, I definitely need to shift my focus to the moment. Here is how it works (I have blogged about this before, but it bears repeating!):


Right now, this moment…I make a choice. I can take this moment captive and give it to the Lord. You are reading this blog and you can prayerfully respond to God in the moment, too. (If you are eating at your computer without regard for physical hunger, for instance, you might want to stop and prayerfully evaluate if God is calling you to eat right now. If you were to take this moment captive for Him, what would it look like?)



Great…ok, that moment is gone, so…now, how about THIS moment? 


Now this one…Yay!

See how this works? 🙂



By the time you have read this blog entry, you may have 5 minutes worth of moments you have captured for the Lord…that is a LOT of moments where you have chosen, freely, to give yourself to God. THIS ALL MATTERS! It pleases him so much that you choose to do this! But those 5 minutes were made up of 100s of momentary choices. Do you see? 🙂



When we get up from your computers, we continue to do the same. Let’s refuse to consider the entire day or the entire week or certainly not the entire year! Instead, he has given us this moment. Let’s capture it for Him…


As we string together one moment for Him with another moment for Him, before we know it, we have an hour of moments that we have seen His victory. We continue in the present moment to do likewise and moments build hours, hours build days, days build weeks…and ta-dah! Before we know it, we have a life that is patterned more on surrender to God than on raising a rebellious fist in his face! But it happens not by looking at the entire thing…it happens by relishing the moment he has given us NOW and declaring it HOLY ground NOW. I can’t really say what will happen an hour, week, month or year from now, but I can do something godly with what I have been given…and what I have been given is THIS moment, NOW!



Let’s go into the year ahead with resolutions that don’t look like the world’s. God wants so much more for us. In fact, Jesus may come again on January 2nd! 😉

If you are tempted to make a New Year’s resolution that looks like these:

“Lose weight in 2010” 
“Get Healthy in 2010” 
“Work out 3x a week in 2010″…etc….

I challenge you to, instead, resolve to develop a Momentary Mentality. Let’s commit to take this moment captive to the Lord–EACH moment!…to live with eternity in view, but capturing the moment for Christ!


Are you with me? 🙂