A New Year is always a good time to evaluate where we are in our lives and to consider changes that we may want to or need to make.  This, of course, is where the ubiqtious New Year’s Resolutions come in.  Personally, I have moved away from making resolutions, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t thought about where I am in life (whether physically, relationally, mentally, or spiritually).  For me, it helped to have some time away visiting family, as well as some quiet time at home last week, to provide some breathing room to think along those lines.  If you haven’t done so yourself, I would encourage you find ways to do the same.   I want to focus on the spiritual side of things, though it is good and necessary to think about all areas of our lives and we should be careful to not try to segment our lives. (On the physical side of things, I’m excited about a new bicycle…some Christmas gifts/bonus is allowing us all to get new bicycles.  I can’t remember the last time I had a bike!).

There is a danger here for many of us, however.  If we approach our spiritual lives the way that we approach and experience a lot of life in this world, then we will be driven by our performance (or lack thereof).  We can easily fall into a trap of thinking that we can earn something from the Lord, forgetting that He has already given all that we need as a gift (read Ephesians 1 & 2).  Our experience of our relationship with the Lord can become too entwined with whether we did something or not (such as having a “quiet time”), rather than becoming more and more entwined with the Lord himself.  This is the danger of New Year’s resolutions – they can become a cycle of resolution, effort, failure, guilt, resolution, effort, failure, guilt…. I don’t think that is how the Lord intended us to experience our relationship with him (read Romans 8).

But there is a danger on the other side:  we are prone toward apathy and stagnation.  And we can become lazy in our spiritual lives.  And the Lord does give us commands in Scripture that govern all aspects of our lives (read Ephesians 4:17-5:21, for example).   And so, there will be times that we need to finds ways to get moving again – to recover devotion and focus upon the Lord.  A time to reconsider the commands of the Lord.  This may be a good time to that.  This would be a good time to pick up your Bible again.  I have come across two great lists that have a wealth of Bible Reading plans for you to consider – there may be some overlap between them, but check out Justin Taylor’s list or Ligonier’s list.  DId you get a new Kindle for Christmas?  Start reading your Bible there.  A new smartphone?  Download a Bible app.  Tired of your commute?  Redeem the time by listening to the Word.  Or go “old school” and dust off your Bible.  We live in an unprecedented time in terms of availability of God’s word – we should take advantage of these opportunities.  Let me know if you need help choosing a plan, downloading an app, or need some encouragement either to get moving or to not get wrapped up in a performance trap.