So, have you made the resolutions? Set the new goals? Reviewed what worked and didn’t work last year?

I wish I could say I’ve been more thorough about it then I have been. I did actually make a list this time. Haven’t done that in quite a while. But my first goal is to be more aware of what God is asking me to do. I’m pretty bad sometimes at hearing His voice and then running off to take care of the rest. Instead, I need to just hang back and continue to listen.

Here’s a challenge for you: have you ever tried reading the Bible through? Completely through? I used to struggle to try and follow one of the many different Bible reading plans that are out there and I never was able to succeed. But last year, I did something different. I just read the Bible for the sake of reading it. Just like I would read something else I picked up to enjoy reading. There were some days I didn’t read at all, and there were some days I couldn’t put it down. There were many days that what I read was exactly what I needed to hear.

So that’s my mini-new year challenge to you. Pick up the Bible and start reading. Commit that you will read it through, all the way through. Don’t set a time line, don’t try and come up with a strategy or a plan. We’re not talking about a mission under the cover of darkness here, we’re talking about reading what God has to say to us! So, pick up your Bible and read. And if the translation you have is a little challenging or difficult, find another one you like. There are plenty of great translations out there. Last year I read through the Message and this year I’m doing the NIV Study Bible. Check out biblegateway.com to view different translations. If you prefer to do a Bible reading plan, check out the ones they offer.

Happy New Year!

Romans 12:1-2 (The Message) – So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

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