Tag Archives: new year’s resolutions

by | January 3, 2020 · 8:54 am

Resolution #1–Persistence

This morning I picked up a book off a pile of unwanted books in the workout room in our house. It was a vague title by an unknown author (probably the reason it was headed to Goodwill!)

I flipped through the pages between my benchpress set and curls set (Yes, physical conditioning is one of my new year’s resolutions…) Then I set the book back down.

I realized this was a parable so many of my new year’s resolutions. The book was a fine thing to pick up, but all too easy to drop.

How does your resolution list look my mid-February? Does it look like a box of abandoned books? How is it doing in June? Here’s the deal: Your best resolution will profit little if your resolve wanes before the fruit is borne.

This something the writer of Ecclesiastes saw clearly as well.

“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”

Ecclesiastes 7:8 

We all get excited about the new year. And it’s great to have a fresh start. But a fresh start to what? What if the end of the year were just as exciting, or better yet, more exciting?

Summit (Credit)

Let’s join Steven Covey and “begin with the end in mind.” What do you want the end of this year to look like? Don’t just think about the new year, think about the whole year. The key to a successful year is not how keen your resolutions are but how strong your resolve is. Persistence, slow and steady, day by day, will turn the flywheel of you life.

The key to a successful year is not how keen your resolutions are but how real your resolve is. #persistence

So take that list, and figure out which items you are committed to doing. Then make plans to work on your plans by answering these questions:

  • How are you going to make this resolution measurable?
  • What do you need to change or remove to make room for this?
  • How will you keep this resolution/goal in front of you?
  • What friend have you enlisted to hold you accountable?

I hope you will have a year marked by persistence! Leave me a comment and let me know how you plan to be resolved about your resolutions.

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by | December 30, 2009 · 12:47 pm

10 Questions

These ten questions are from Dr. Don Whitney.  I hope that you enjoy reflecting on them.  You can find more from him at www.biblicalspirituality.org

Ten Questions to ask at the start of a new year

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It’s so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we’re going and where we should be going.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

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