Dear Friends,The beginning of a new year is always a good time to pray and reflect on priorities. We often call them new year resolutions. A few weeks ago, I linked an article that was very helpful on this. In fact, even the title of this article is helpful,
Skip Resolutions in 2019 - Make a Rule of Life. I hope that you have had some time to think through your spiritual priorities for 2019. If you haven't, it's not too late!Though I have written about this before, I think it is worth repeating. If you want to start off the year making spiritual growth a priority, then there are three ingredients that I believe are vital to making that happen. I call it
TPP: a Time, a Place and a Plan.Time. When are you going to spend time in personal worship - personally communing with God through His Word? You know yourself. You know if you are a morning person, a night owl or a lunch-time reader. Find a consistent time each day that you will at least spend 10-15 minutes with the Lord in prayer and Bible study.
Place. Where are you going to spend time with the Lord? The kitchen table? A home office? A local park? Find a place that you know will be helpful for you to concentrate and be ready to commune with God. Often times making coffee the night before, clearing off a place at the breakfast table or setting multiple alarms and reminders are helpful to make your place ready for personal worship.
Plan. This is where the rubber meets the road. Too often, we have good intentions to do things in life like eat better, exercise and even start reading our Bibles daily but we don't make a plan to accomplish our goals. I want to encourage you to write out a plan. In your plans, include these three elements of time, place and then your plan. Are you going to read the Bible through in a year? Memorize one Bible verse a week? Read one chapter a day? Start a devotional book? No matter what it is, and there many good plans, write it down so that when you get tired, sick or off your plan, you can go back to it to remind yourself.Let me know if I can help you with any of this. I would love to point you to some resources that can help you. There are also some wonderful devotional resources in the church lobby that you can check out.See you Sunday!by His Grace and to His Praise,Wilson
