As we discussed last week, the seventy Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards exemplify an eternal and God-glorifying perspective that all believers ought to emulate.
But let’s be honest. A list of spiritual goals compiled by one of
church history’s greatest heroes can be a bit intimidating, especially
when there are seventy of them. When we make similar resolutions — and
later fail to keep them — it can be downright discouraging to compare
ourselves to someone like Jonathan Edwards.
Well, here’s a nugget of encouragement for you. Even a notable
Puritan theologian like Edwards struggled to keep his resolutions.
As historian George Marsden explains about Edwards:
It was one thing to make such a thorough
and impressive list of resolutions; it was another to keep them. This we
know from his diary, in which he reported his efforts fairly regularly
for the next year or two. Although he noted the spiritual highs that he
later recalled, his diary also records many days of lows, “decays,” and
lengthy times of inability to focus on spiritual things. (A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards, 24)
Here is one such example from Edwards’s Diary:
The last week I was sunk so low, that I
fear it will be a long time before I am recovered. I fell exceedingly
low in the weekly account [regarding keeping my resolutions]. I find my
heart so deceitful, that I am almost discouraged from making any more
resolutions. — Wherein have I been negligent in the week past; and how
could I have done better, to help the dreadful low estate in which I am
sunk?
Sound familiar? Keep Reading >>>
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