Whether you've finalized your 2020 resolutions, don't have plans to make any, or are somewhere in between, the best place to start thinking about change in the New Year is with the Word of God.  Before you start figuring out how to get out of debt or shed those holiday pounds (and those are wonderful goals!), start with the Bible, and with prayer, ask God to guide your priorities.  Even within the 66 books of the Bible, you may wonder where to begin, so here are some suggestions.

Are you like most Bible readers who skim past the genealogies?  Sometimes we call them "the begots."  Here at Christmas, the genealogies of Jesus give us insights.  Matthew 1:6, in tracing Jesus's legal lineage, makes this point: "David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah."  Those familiar with the Old Testament know the story well.  Have you ever heard Jesus' family called "the holy family?"  Go back a bit more, and you find that His ancestors weren't all that holy.  David was king of Israel, and at a time when kings should have been at the battlefront, David was on the roof of his palace.  He happened to see a woman named Bathsheba bathing, and in his lust over her, he committed adultery with her.  Not only that, he also had her husband Uriah essentially executed by ordering him into a certain-death frontline situation.  The sin would be found out, though, because Bathsheba became pregnant.  That child perished, but a future child of the couple was named Solomon.  This child became king and - get this - part of Messiah's lineage.  
We've heard Romans 8:28 many times.  We have it on paperweights, greeting cards, bumper stickers, and more.  What God did in the birth of Christ, though, is an example of His Romans 8:28 ability.  God endorsed neither David's murder of Uriah, nor his adulterous union with Bathsheba.  But He did work David's tragic mess together for good - to bring us Christ.  
The message is clear and powerful.  "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." (Rom. 5:20).  That's what Christmas is all about.  God is so wise, magnificent and gracious that He took a situation as shattered and horrific as what we created through sin and brought out of it the spotless Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.  Glory to God in the Highest!