New Year’s resolutions can be an important first step, but they are far from a real and lasting change.
The awakening of a new year brings with it the possibility of a new beginning, or at least the renewal of a reminder to turn the page on some (or several) ways in which we would like to grow and mature in this new way of life. But have we tried this several times and know how useless resolutions are if they are not accompanied by a few other things?
- Whether eating and exercising.
- Reading the Bible.
- And praying.
- The God-created mechanism we call.
- It is vital to see our sincere resolutions through pleasurable realities.
- If we are truly determined to see our hopes become.
- In 2020.
- Enriching habits for life.
- We will do well to take into account some fundamental truths at the beginning of the new year.
Better than great emotions, private resolutions about the many things you want in your life, you’re listening to one or two realistic and really important resolutions, with a concrete plan and a specific responsibility. The excitement of a new year and the ease with which we want to change usually leads us to understand much more than we can chew in a new year.
Is it better to focus on some new habits? Even better, in one. And if you want to reduce it to one (or maybe two or three), it better count. It identifies something important that will place a particular emphasis on the formation of new habits, even if this resolution brings benefits in other areas of your life. Habits of grace: strengthening souls is just that. Deepening the word of God, in prayer or in the local church, will produce an invaluable harvest.
Consider a specific address for the new year, or simply for the first three months of 2020, or even only for January. A year is a long period in terms of habit training; Normally we would do much better to solve one situation at a time and do it every few months than try many things over a period of up to twelve months.
Reading the Bible, prayer, and Christian communion are likely to be very broad in themselves. Give them a more specific orientation, such as reading the entire Bible this year, or not just reading, but meditating daily on a short passage or verse, or even just a word or phrase (in context). Do not maintain a general emphasis on ‘prayer’, but make it more private: private prayer every morning or prayer with your spouse or family before bedtime, tapping your day of “constant prayer. “or a new prayer initiative such as a community group or a church.
Perhaps as the end of the year approaches, you realize how unequal your commitment to the church has been and how weak your relationships are. Can you decide to deepen your commitment so you don’t neglect your meeting?Any of them? (He 10. 25), either to make Sunday morning less negotiable or to prioritize your investment in coexistence, in groups of communion on weekdays Decide that in 2020 you will not let stupid last-minute excuses prevent you from faithfully finding the body of Christ, that you will be an invaluable and long-term means of God’s grace for you and , through you, for others.
As serious as its resolution is, it needs a corresponding realistic planning. Let’s be honest, you really don’t want to enrich your prayer life if you’re not willing to think for a few minutes about where, when, and how you are. go praying in 2020. Clearly and concretely map what it would take to cultivate the habit for an entire month. Think long-term and make sure it’s realistic.
Part of realism is accepting a certain modesty about your goals. Don’t try to go from sporadic devotions at 1 a. m. Start with a concentration of fifteen minutes a day, maybe even ten, but don’t stop negotiating. and see what God is doing. Increase your duration and depth as scripture absorption becomes an important part of your schedule and learns to wake up more hungry for the Bible each day than breakfast.
Running athletes will tell you that having a healthy heart in old age is not your main motivation. This is an added bonus, of course, but it’s not this elusive, far-moving reward that gets you out of bed in the morning and forces you to do it. Instead, what motivates most bottom runners is to feel good today, whether it’s endorphins, feelings of achievement or lucidity, or all of the above.
Trying to use the same long-term motivation each morning to get out of bed and hear God’s voice in the scriptures will soon exhaust us, and God does not suggest that we should be motivated solely by distant and future rewards, however important. God gives us abundant motivations for today. His mercy is renewed every morning (Lm 3:22-23). He wants us to try and see his goodness now (Salt 34. 8). It can satisfy our souls a lot by a real action that changes life now.
Over the years, I have found the most transformative reward in cultivating habits of grace, not becoming stronger and more holy as a long-term Christian, but knowing and appreciating Jesus today. I have my soul satisfied today. Make my heart rejoice with him this morning.
The purpose of daily spiritual discipline is not, above all, to be holy or to grow, but to know and enjoy Jesus and to have our souls satisfied, imperfectly but powerfully, in him. The supreme joy in any truly Christian habit, practice or rhythm of life is, in the words of the Apostle, “by the sublimity of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”; (Fp 3. 8). Is it eternal life?and is this the goal of the means of grace?”And this is eternal life: that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom ye have sent. “(Jo 17. 3). Make Osseas 6. 3 a standard for his spiritual purposes by 2020: “Let us know and continue to know the Lord. “
One of the shortcomings of so many resolutions is that they remain private; when we share them, we take real responsibility; we are sinners. Our heads aren’t always tied around our necks. We need others to ask questions about our lives and explain who we say we want to be and what we say we want to do.
You may want to talk to someone about some of these principles of good habits and consider a reminder on the monthly calendar to discuss them. It is a great way of God’s grace that does not leave us alone in the formation of spiritual habits.
At the end of the day, and at the end of all others, the Holy Spirit, not our habits, is decisive in producing a lasting spiritual fruit. Cultivating wise habits is not our attempt to work for God’s acceptance, but to develop our salvation. (Philippians 2: 12-13).