One of the reasons I loved Lawson’s book The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards is that it focuses on Edwards’ resolutions making it a quick and easy read, as opposed to many biographical works that can be slow and tedious as you learn about a person’s entire life. He groups Edwards’ 70 resolutions into 6 categories: pursuing the glory of God, forsaking sin, making proper use of God-allotted time, living with all his being for the Lord, pursuing humility and love, and making frequent self-examination. I won’t go through each one, but I highly recommend you get Lawson’s book if this interests you.
Edward begins his resolutions with his aim to glorify God in all things, showing really that all of his subsequent resolutions are meant to aid him in this endeavor. Resolutions 2, 4, 23, and 27 also deal directly with his goal to give God glory. Here's resolution #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 myriads 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." (Edwards' first resolution copied from Lawson p.65)
Notice how Edwards assumes that whatever is most to God’s glory is also to his own good, profit, and even pleasure. My, how we’ve redefined “good”. How often do I consider some difficulty that is to my spiritual benefit and God’s glory “good”? Therein must lie the key to suffering well, the perspective that if it’s to God’s glory then it really is to the believer’s benefit, too. I don’t just have persecution in mind here, but the daily suffering of giving up my frivolous wants (and I have lots of them) in order to seek God’s glory. This is very convicting to me when I see how short I fall in the goals that I have set for my life. My goals are usually more short-term- like what I want to achieve over the next 1-10 years. Edwards truly had an eternal perspective in that he desired for every second of his life to count for eternity.
The next 69 of Edwards’ resolutions consisted of every possible way in which he could live out his primary goal of doing everything to maximize God’s glory. In the same way, I hope to establish some resolutions for myself for the upcoming year that will also stem from that same purpose to glorify God. I hope you will join me in brainstorming about the details of our lives- schedules, reading time, family time, diet, ministry, Bible study, friendships, marriage, “free” time, etc. and let’s establish a few resolutions that will spur us on toward holiness for the glory of God. Will you join with me? I’ll look at some more of Edwards’ resolutions in my next post and then start to make a few of my own. I’m NOT going to make 70, so don’t worry I think I can wrap this up in the next few days.
"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 myriads 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." (Edwards' first resolution copied from Lawson p.65)
Notice how Edwards assumes that whatever is most to God’s glory is also to his own good, profit, and even pleasure. My, how we’ve redefined “good”. How often do I consider some difficulty that is to my spiritual benefit and God’s glory “good”? Therein must lie the key to suffering well, the perspective that if it’s to God’s glory then it really is to the believer’s benefit, too. I don’t just have persecution in mind here, but the daily suffering of giving up my frivolous wants (and I have lots of them) in order to seek God’s glory. This is very convicting to me when I see how short I fall in the goals that I have set for my life. My goals are usually more short-term- like what I want to achieve over the next 1-10 years. Edwards truly had an eternal perspective in that he desired for every second of his life to count for eternity.
The next 69 of Edwards’ resolutions consisted of every possible way in which he could live out his primary goal of doing everything to maximize God’s glory. In the same way, I hope to establish some resolutions for myself for the upcoming year that will also stem from that same purpose to glorify God. I hope you will join me in brainstorming about the details of our lives- schedules, reading time, family time, diet, ministry, Bible study, friendships, marriage, “free” time, etc. and let’s establish a few resolutions that will spur us on toward holiness for the glory of God. Will you join with me? I’ll look at some more of Edwards’ resolutions in my next post and then start to make a few of my own. I’m NOT going to make 70, so don’t worry I think I can wrap this up in the next few days.
ohhhh my, I am way too far behind! I guess I have been busy,and now I am like 6 posts behind on reading yours. slow down girl I have to catch up! :)
ReplyDeleteI will start with this one, and move up from there.