Every New Year, people are eager to shed off past mistakes and embrace a new beginning. Late evangelist Billy Graham was all for self-improvement and fresh starts, but he strongly suggested that people open their hearts up to Jesus Christ first.

"After all, each of us wants to become a better person and have a better life, and yet it eludes us. Even the Apostle Paul admitted, 'I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out (Romans 7:18)," he wrote in an advice column for the Kansas City Star.

People's New Year's resolutions often fail because they are not very realistic, explained Graham. "And frankly, there's no use including something on our list that simply isn't going to happen," he said.

Other resolutions fail, he said, because people do not take appropriate steps to make it happen. Simply put, there is no concrete action plan. "We wish for something to happen, but that's all it is: a wish. Still others fail because we aren't willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary to bring them about," he said.

Graham said there is a deeper reason why resolutions fail—people try to achieve it without God. He said the only way for people to have the moral and spiritual strength to carry out their goals is to seek God's help, and they should disregard pride and improve their lives with God's guidance.

"At the beginning of this new year turn to Jesus Christ and commit your life without reserve to Him. Then ask Him to give you the strength to become the kind of person He wants you to be. Make Jesus' words your guide: 'But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well' (Matthew 6:33)," Graham wrote.