Keeping Resolutions

At the age of just under 18, when he had just become pastor of a small church, the well-known revivalist preacher Jonathan Edwards wrote down 70 resolutions in his diary. Here is a small selection of them:

First of all, what Jonathan Edwards had also written before his resolutions:

"Realizing that I can do nothing without God's help, I humbly beseech Him to enable me by His grace to keep these resolutions, so far as they are consistent with His will, for Christ's sake."

"Resolved, after afflictions, to consider how I have been made better by them, what good I have received by them, and what I might have gained by them."

"Resolved, to make every effort to act as I think I would if I had already seen the bliss of heaven and the torments of hell."

"Resolved, to study the Scriptures so constantly, continuously and frequently that I see and clearly perceive in myself how I am growing in their knowledge."

— Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758, American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian.