New Year’s resolutions are promises we make to ourselves to do things differently and make positive changes in our lives. Although we usually mean well and intend to keep the resolutions, these annual promises are not always kept.

God resolved to establish a covenant with His people but not like the old covenant that Israel had broken. It was a new covenant promise, and God always keeps His promises! This new covenant of forgiveness was fulfilled through the death and resurrection of Jesus. When we receive the Lord’s Supper, we hear Jesus speak of the covenant promise: “This is my body … this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). Cleansed from sin, we resolve with the help of the Holy Spirit to forgive others as we have been forgiven.