Have you made your list of resolutions for the New Year? Each year as this day rolls around we think of things we want to do. Things like: lose weight, read our Bibles more, spend more time in prayer with God, be a better husband, father, child, etc. The list is endless, isn’t it? Some say they do not make resolutions because they will just break them anyway. Isn’t it amazing the way we rationalize planning for failure? What do you mean Doug? If you think that you are going to fail you just choose not to do anything. Thus you are planning for failure without even realizing it. On the other hand we should think about the changes we want to make in our lives and diligently strive to do them. If we go into something not really convinced of it happening, there’s a good chance it won’t. If we make plans and then carefully work that plan, then we will succeed. Isn’t that what we really want? As we look through the Bible we see people who had a plan, worked that plan and then succeeded because they did not waiver. One of these was Nehemiah. He was a Jew that had been taken captive and was serving a Persian king. When God allowed the remnant of His people to go back to Jerusalem, the wall around the city had not been rebuilt. Thus, the enemy would have no trouble getting through to destroy the people. Nehemiah would lead a group of people to rebuild the wall. During this time he chose to stay faithful to the task and accomplish it. He had outside forces trying to stop the work. Sanballat and Tobiah were a couple of these men. Ridicule was one way the people tried to stop the work. When they saw the wall they said, “Even what they are building—If a fox should jump on it, he would break down their stone wall.” (Neh. 4:3) They tried extortion, compromise, slander, and treachery to get the work to stop. All of this was to no avail. Neh. 6:15,16 informs us, “So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, they lost their confidence; for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.” Make your plan and call upon God to help you work that plan. Plan for success. To make no plans is to plan to fail. So, what are the resolutions you’re making?