Spiritual Development - January
“10 Questions to Consider as You Enter the New Year” by Deepak Reju
As the New Year begins, there is yet again a chance to face life’s opportunities and challenges. New aspirations. New hopes. New resolutions. New goals. New dreams. Lose some weight next year? Maybe run a marathon, or start running in the first place? Read your Bible more? Pick up a new hobby? Spend more time with your kids? Consider these 10 questions as you enter into the New Year….
1. How can your relationship with Christ grow more? Consider the weakest parts of your spiritual life. Do you struggle to read your Bible, or pray, or fast, or go to church, or serve, or love, or trust, or forgive? Take your weak point, and focus some time and energy on it this upcoming year. Is there someone who can walk alongside you to help you fight for faith?
2. How can your love for God’s Word increase? Maybe you need to implement a realistic reading plan? Realistic is the key word. If it is unrealistic, you’ll fall behind quickly, you’ll get discouraged, and won’t do it anymore. Maybe you read God’s Word, but you still need to grow in your depth of understanding. If you read a lot of the Word but don’t retain much, maybe you should slow down and meditate more?
3.How much do you pray? Talking with God matters. We need to pray. It’s fundamental to what it means to be human—to talk with the One who made us. Learn to pray the things that matter to God. Maybe you can grow in prayer by starting to pray with someone?
4. Do you need a renewed resolve to fight against your habitual sin? If there is sin that you’ve been battling for a long time, what would it take to finally put it to death? If you are discouraged, disenfranchised, disappointed, or despairing about your sin, always remember: there is more mercy in Christ than sin in you.
5.How is your fight against your respectable sins? Maybe you don’t struggle with the high-handed, habitual sins. But we are all sinners, so the “respectable” sins—pride, impatience, anxiety and worry, ingratitude, discontentment, judgment of others, envy, coveting, jealousy—we each face daily.
6.Is there a relationship that needs some work? Maybe in your pride, there is a relationship you have not dealt with? Does someone have a grudge against you? Or do you hold a grievance against someone? Are you not willing to forgive?
7. Is there a gospel risk that you need to take? Is there a risk you can take for the sake of Christ? Maybe there is someone in your life that needs to hear the gospel? Don’t let your fear of man get in the way of your loved one hearing the truth.
8. How much does church matter to you? How about going to church consistently? For some, that’s an important starting point. The word church means gathering or assembly. You start to value church more if you simply start going. You need to be at church more so that the congregation can get to know you and you can get to know them.
9. How do you do handle suffering and weakness? What if you go through a season of difficulties, hardships, pain,frustrations, disappointments, persecution, or health issues? Are you ready? How will you do? Suffering strips away our happy dispositions and tests what we really believe. When you suffer, you often find out who or what you trust. If suffering were to come, are you prepared?
10. What surprises does God have in store for you? Every year brings new challenges, new hopes, new disappointments, and new dreams. What does the upcoming year have in store for you? If God’s providential hand delivered something unexpected, how would you take it? Do you trust the Lord enough to accept with open hands what He might offer you?