New Year's resolutions are a bad idea for most Christians

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This is a companion to the video "New Year's Resolutions are a BAD IDEA for most Christians - Here's Why." It is for the person who has made the same resolution more than once, watched it die by the second week of January, and drawn a conclusion about themselves from that. It is also for the person who has never quite put words to a suspicion: that faith is supposed to change you, that the change is slower and patchier than advertised, and that the gap might mean something is wrong with them. If either of those is you, this guide was written with you in mind.

Here is how to use it. Watch the video first if you can; it is about sixteen minutes. Then open your Bible to Colossians 3 and keep it there. Read "The teaching" straight through, because it carries the whole argument on its own. Then work "The passages" slowly, with a pen, checking every line against your own Bible. Save "Questions to sit with" for last and answer them on paper. Paper is slower than your head, and slower is the point.

One thing before we start. Nothing in this guide is a test of whether you are a real Christian. Being right about how change happens does not save anyone; faith in Jesus does. I have friends who swear by their January goal lists and friends who think the whole thing is silly, and they love the Lord and love people just the same. So hold this loosely. Let the text convince you if it convinces you, and stay kind toward everyone who does it differently.

It matters because how you think change happens decides how you treat yourself when it does not happen. If transformation is a project you launch and maintain, every missed day is a verdict on you. If transformation is a work God has already started, and your part is to cooperate with it, a missed day is just a missed day. Same Bible, same struggle, and two entirely different ways to treat yourself on the morning after.