So here we are starting another year and going through our first of the year rituals—making goals for change that we keep about a week, peering into the obscurity of the future seeing if we can make out what’s ahead, and hopefully, looking back on the past year to praise God for His goodness and to remember what we learned so we won’t make the same mistakes.
I don’t know about you but I want to be a better servant of the Lord Jesus this year. I want a joyful, abundant life. I think we can move towards these goals by asking ourselves some piercing questions.
- What area of your internal life would you like to change?
For me it’s fear and the resulting doubt. That’s been a whole-life battle. Where’s your battle?
Here is an action plan that you can carry out, however you answered the question. 1/Find what God’s Word says about your struggle. 2/Pray and think about the way out. 3/Begin with one action step. How am I going to conquer this? One step. 4/Pray and trust God for His strength and wisdom. Spiritual battles have spiritual solutions.
- How am I going to grow in the Lord this year?
Think it through. Just saying, “I’m going to read the Bible more and pray more,” isn’t enough, though it’s great to start if you don’t do this already. Why do you feel weak in your relationship with God? Think of examples in the Bible of how someone grew in God. Find someone further along the road of relationship with the Lord and see if you can spend some time with them. Get hungry to know Him more and more.
- How am I going to deepen my most important relationships this year?
Decide to do one practical thing and put it into practice regularly. Think! Relationships with others are gold and if you don’t work on them, they die.
- What do you think God wants you to do this year?
What practical step will you take in that direction?
- If I could have a dream come true this year, what would it be?
Write it down. Pray about it. What is one thing you could do to move towards seeing it happen?
Write your answers and look at them once a week. Then at the end of the year tell me what happened.
“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:3 (ESV)
“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)