Crossworld President Dale Losch responds to “Temptations and America’s Favorite Sins” by the Barna Group.

It’s another new year — the time when many of us resolve to make important life changes. The Barna group has just released a new study that examines the temptations Americans say they most commonly struggle with and how they plan to change.

The top five on the list? Procrastinating (60%), worrying (60%), over-eating (55%), over-spending (44%) and spending too much time on media (44%).

The big surprise was how low on the list were such things as sexual sin — pornography (18%) and inappropriate sexual behavior (9%) — or some of the classic sins like lying (12%), anger (11%) or stealing and idolatry, which did not rank at all!

When asked how they dealt with temptation, only 2% said they depended on God, 3% said they recalled Scripture, and 4% said they called on a friend.

What does all of this have to do with disciple-making? Quite a lot actually, especially if you view the disciple-making process as we have defined it: Helping people everywhere to live and love like Jesus by imparting God’s truth through authentic relationship wherever life happens. The three key elements are truth, relationship and life. Growth in Christ-likeness comes through learning and applying God’s truth in life-on-life relationships with other followers of Jesus. Yet apparently only 2%-4% of Americans see God, His truth or other people as key to dealing with sin.

Do you want a resolution for the new year that can actually affect lasting change? Try this one: Commit yourself to learn and obey God’s Word in a relationship with one or two others who want to follow Jesus.