Martin Lloyd Jones on Resolutions

I have been stealing a lot lately. Here is another theft I stole from Piper, enjoy my crime:

Reading Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ classic Spiritual Depression would be a strong way to start the new year.

The title can be a tad deceiving. It’s not merely a book for those with a pronounced sense of spiritual depression. It’s a book for all Christians—for the daily spiritual depressions we all face this side of heaven.

Lloyd-Jones ends his second chapter with these challenging and refreshing words:

Would you like to be rid of this spiritual depression? The first thing you
have to do is to say farewell now once and forever to your past. Realize that it
has been covered and blotted out in Christ. Never look back at your sins again.
Say: ‘It is finished, it is covered by the Blood of Christ’. That is your first
step. Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and
look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only then that true happiness and joy are
possible for you. What you need is not to make resolutions to live a better
life, to start fasting and sweating and praying. No! You just begin to say:

I rest my faith on Him alone
Who died for my transgressions to atone