New Year Resolutions

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” Matthew 12:33, 35 (NIV)

Many people desire to change their lives. Some make resolutions at just before the beginning of the New Year. Very few will succeed in all of their resolutions. Many will give up making any more resolutions and try to compromise with what they are. When I was young, I failed many times at keeping my resolutions. It is like trying to change a fruitless tree by tying good fruit to the branches. The tree is not changed. The tree is still not blossoming and the old fruit is rotten and needs to be removed. The real change didn’t come until I connected to God, who is the maker of the tree and who can change the tree and make it to bear fruit. He can change a bad person into a good person.

I witnessed change in Darrell West whom I met in The Salvation Army in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2004 as a bell ringer during the Christmas season. Darrell had a serious anger problem. He was raised by a single working mother in a bad neighborhood. He dropped out of high school. I told him that God can bring amazing changes in his life if can turn to Him. He accepted to come to altar for a prayer. I shared Jesus with him and told him to spend every day with me reading the Bible and the doctrines of The Salvation Army and to allow the good in him to come out. He accepted Jesus as his personal savior and committed himself and started reading the scriptures carefully and studying with me for couple of months on daily basis. One day he broke down crying. He told me that he was a drug dealer and it was the only way he knew to make money. “If I ask Jesus to save me and help me leave the drug business,” he wept, “how am I going to live?” I said, “God can give you money, even from the trash.” He drove around the city in his truck. He decided not to deal drugs anymore and he parked in front of a big dumpster to think, and, remembering my words, salvaged a few things from the dumpster. On the way home he saw a junk yard and he stopped and talked to the men working there. He gave them some of the things he’d saved from the trash and they paid him. He had found a way to leave the drug business. God blessed him. He has several trucks now and hires people to help him. He was named The King Load by the people who know him. He is very thankful to God and for that Christmas when he decided his new year’s resolution was to have a change in his life. He got his wish! He will be always willing to share his testimony, if you would like hear personally, his cell #(678) 301-8760

When Darrell changed so much you too can change. Try with Jesus. Jesus spoke about making a bad tree into a good tree. Yes, God is able to change you. He said, "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah 32:27 (NIV) Are you compromising yourself thinking that you cannot change anymore?

God can change you! He can give you a new spirit and a new heart. “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 11:19 (NIV)