Resolved

He was privileged from birth, intelligent beyond his years, and from the world's perspective "had everything going for him"; and yet his eternity was bleak, black, and frightening.  Raised in a pastor's home, he was no stranger to God, the Bible, and everything that came along with it.  And yet the hardness of his heart left him rejecting a sovereign God, the only one who could save Him.


BUT GOD, in His glorious sovereignly designed plan, had just begun with the young man.  His plans for Him were far greater than the world expected, plans that would forever change His eternal destiny.


At 18, after attending Yale and graduating at the top of his class, Edwards came across the following:


"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." (1 Timothy 1:17)


As he meditated upon the words, they were new and fresh, despite having heard them before.  He describes this moment, "As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before… I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up to him in heaven; and be as it were swallowed up in him for ever!" And in that moment, the power of God transferred the young man from death to true life, forever changed by the power of God's grace in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.


From that moment on, everything changed.  His heart had been exchanged and now beat for the One and only King.  His desires were purposed after the glory of God alone.  His passion was the Jesus who had saved His soul.  His devotion was to the precious Truth found in the Word of God.  


At 19, he pondered what He might do as He pursued Christ, what would spiritually benefit Him the most; it was then that he penned the first 21 of his "resolutions". Resolutions, not for the new year, but for his new life.  Resolutions that would shape the way in which he walked, talked, thought...lived.  Resolutions that he would read over and over again, begging for the Spirit's enablement to carry them out.  Resolutions that would not only change his life, but generations to come.  Here are just a few:


1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriad’s of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.


4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.

5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the 

last hour of my life.

8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.

9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

Jonathan Edwards resolved to live a life radically different, for the glory of God.  His life is one I admire more than most men and women that have ever lived on this earth.  The passion and purity of His faith, at such a young age, is encouraging and convicting, yet SO motivating. 

For whatever reason we too make resolutions at the beginning of a new year.  We sit down and evaluate our life and determine what we want to change.  For the Christian, we have the sweet promise that we don't need a new year to change, because His mercies are new every DAY.  But, there is still something about the new year that gives us more drive and desire to make things better.  We may have silly resolutions that in the grand scheme of life really don't matter, and quite frankly that we probably won't even keep for more than a month.  But the question begs, do we make resolutions that really matter?  Are we like the young Jonathan Edwards, who was so in awe of the God He served, that he was burdened to strive with all excellence to live in a way that glorified Him.  Do we evaluate how we can do this, practically and prayerfully?  Are our resolutions profitable, eternally?  

May we evaluate our life based on the one thing that truly matters, eternity, and resolve as Edwards did, practically and purposefully, to do ALL things for the glory of our God.  In the end, what our life story says is all that will matter!