It is a new year and with a new year comes resolutions. I don’t like resolutions; they just seem to be waiting to be broken. I prefer to give myself challenges, and I would like to extend these challenges to all of our newsletter readers.
My first challenge is for you to begin or continue daily Bible reading. We take our Bibles for granted so often. We believe blindly when someone teaches or quotes from the Bible, instead of studying for ourselves. Paul told Timothy to “…give attention to reading…” (I Tim. 4:13). Paul also complimented the Bereans for daily searching the scriptures (Acts 17:10-11). The Bible is full of stories, poetry, and wisdom. The Bible is God’s way of instructing us on how He wants us to live. If you think that you lack the discipline to read daily, enlist someone to read with you, even over the phone. You can then discuss what you have read.
Along the same lines as daily Bible reading, my second challenge is memorization. Do you have a favorite verse or chapter? If so, I would challenge you to memorize the passage. Until I decided to try memorizing 100 verses for Centurion of Scripture, I really didn’t have an appreciation for the authors of my favorite scriptures. I came to a better understanding of David’s relationship with God, Solomon’s attitude toward life, and Paul’s heart-felt desire to spread the gospel to the Gentiles.
My third challenge is for a more active prayer life. Paul told the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:17) . He knew that “staying in touch” with God is necessary for spiritual growth. The wonderful thing about prayer is that you can pray anywhere, anytime. I seem to have some of my best chats with God when I am driving at night. I suppose it is because I don’t have anything to distract me since it is dark. However, there have been times when I was so busy during the day that I forgot to pray. I am so glad that God doesn’t forget me the same way!
There are many other challenges we could add to this list, but these three are very important to me because they deal with communication. The Bible is God’s communication to us, and prayer is our communication to God. We must be willing to listen as well as speak to our Father. How else will we learn who He is unless we get to know Him?
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