Today starts a brand new year! Celebrate!

New Year’s Day is one of the world’s oldest holidays. In fact, it was first observed nearly 4,000 years ago by the ancient Babylonians (that’s a lot of New Year’s Day celebrations!). But it was not always celebrated on the first of January. The Babylonians observed the start of the new year on the first day of spring, as did many other cultures. It wasn’t until much later when the Romans came to power that January 1 was set as the official start of the new year.

The date may have changed, but one New Year’s Day tradition has remained the same—making New Year’s resolutions. Even the early Babylonians marked the start of a new year with making resolutions. But while our modern resolutions tend to be about losing weight or exercising more, the most popular ancient Babylonian resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment!

Almost everyone makes resolutions. Maybe you resolve to read your Bible every day. Maybe you promise to finish all your homework before you go online or watch television. Perhaps your resolution is to be nicer to your brother or sister. Or maybe you have something borrowed that needs to be returned!

New Year’s resolutions are fun to make; sometimes we even keep them. But more often than not, our resolve weakens after a few days. By the time February rolls around, those promises are long forgotten. But before you get too discouraged, there is good news. There is one whose Word you can count on, day in and day out. God’s promises will never change. His resolution will stay strong from January 1 through December 31, each and every year. Depend on his promises to help you keep yours.

Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise (Hebrews 10:23).

To Do

Go ahead and make a resolution on this New Year’s Day. Write it down in your Bible and ask God to help you keep it every day.

Also on this day . . .

1735—Paul Revere was born.

1840—The first bowling match in the U.S. was recorded.

1892—Ellis Island Immigrant Station formally opened in New York.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.