A search of “What is a New Year’s Resolution” took me to wikipedia and I was a little shocked at what I found.  The custom goes back to Babylon as you will see below.  So I understand now why the Bible cautions us against empty pledges.  So I found a couple of verses that might help in resolving a better new year.  I was raised by a minister, so every New Years Eve was spent in a candlelight service where at midnight everyone crowded around the altar and “prayed” in the New Year.  My father started on us every year about Thanksgiving and we were suppose to start our list of New Year’s Resolution or Goals for improving ourselves in the coming year.  I took the usual, eat less, be more thankful, be more respectful to my parents, better grades in school, not telling lies, clean my room more, etc.  I took all of the popular resolutions of the time.  Not very many lasted for more than a few days.  Except the lie part, that one stuck.  So as you make your New Year’s goals or resolutions try not to make empty pledges and promises as I did, because God takes these very serious.  I have a real short list this year.  As I reflect over the last year, I want to have a Closer Walk With God, I want my light for Christ to shine brighter than ever before.  I’m working on ways to accomplish the aforementioned.  I want to witness more even if it’s just a smile, and a kind word.  I want Christ to shine through me.  

My wish for everyone is God’s Blessings and protection for all.  And for us all to gain the wisdom, knowledge  and guidance given to King Soloman.  God Bless you All.

James 4:13-17

English Standard Version (ESV)

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Colossians 3:14-15 (ESV)

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Psalm 51:10-11 (ESV)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

The ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts.^[1]

The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named.^[2]

In the Medieval era, the knights took the “peacock vow” at the end of the Christmas season each year to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.^[1]

At watchnight services, many Christians prepare for the year ahead by praying and making these resolutions.^[3]

There are other religious parallels to this tradition. During Judaism’s New Year, Rosh Hashanah, through the High Holidays and culminating in Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), one is to reflect upon one’s wrongdoings over the year and both seek and offer forgiveness. People may act similarly during the Catholic fasting period of Lent, though the motive behind this holiday is more of sacrifice than of responsibility, in fact the practice of New Year’s resolutions partially came from the Lenten sacrifices.^[3] The concept, regardless of creed, is to reflect upon self-improvementannually.

Bible Verses Source

Other source

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