As most of us enter a new year, we make New year's resolutions. These are goals of things we want to accomplish in the next 12 months.
Here are a few I have heard of: Lose weight; advance in one's place of employment; find a new or better job; be a better parent, husband, or wife; take some schooling.
These days it seems that many laugh at the thought of New Year's resolutions since so often we do not see them through. but "where there is no vision; the people perish" (Prov. 29:18a). We need to have a goal of where we are heading so that we can steer our lives in that direction, or we may never change anything in our lives for the better.
But do we ever think of making spiritual goals in our lives? We should.
But this is a new idea and I do not even know how to begin, what types of goals could I make for this area of our live? I hear you ask.
Here are a few that I have used over the years:
* Read the Bible more. How? You can start by reading it daily. you have many choices as to how much you want to read. you can read a verse a day & meditate in it, or a few verses to a chapter a day. some people read through the Bible in one year.
* Pray more often. Prayer is to be more than a fast prayer before meals. prayer is to be a conversation between you & God. It is meant to bring you and God closer together into a relationship. Things you can talk to God about are forgiveness of sins; salvation for yourself or others. guidance; needs of others and yourself; worship & praise of who God is; and foe those over you, be it parents, bosses, or government.
* Serve God. This can be done in many ways. here are a few ideas. In the church, by way of teaching, cleaning, parking, working in the nursery. A visitation ministry in the hospitals, nursing homes, the shut-ins. Let your light in your home, neighborhood, job, and school.
* Memorize
Scripture. You can memorize a verse a week, a verse a month or a verse a year. for about 18 years now, God and i have picked verse for the year for me to memorize and meditate on. Amazingly, many of the verses coincided with what happens during the year.
In 1989, it was "for I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord.'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV). This was the year we moved three times in one year.
The year 2000 found me with, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" (Is. 40:31, KJV). This is the year i physically collapsed and took most of the year regaining my health and strength.
For more than one year, I used I Thess. 4:11-12,"And that ye study to be quiet, and do your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly towards them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing." These were very productive years on the farm for me.
All of these verses acted as catalysts that helped propel me into a new year. Then when the going got tough they encouraged me to keep my eyes on the goal, as I continued through the year. I found myself closer to my goal at year's end.
You, too, can take one or more of these ideas and use them to launch you into your new year. I wish you a new year filled with Christ and spiritual growth!
A prayer for the new year: Take a way my yesterday and give me a new dawn. Take away my yesterday and give me a new song. As I'm launching on, Lord, launching out into another year; as I'm launching on, Lord, help me to remember you are here.
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