It’s a New Year! What’s Next?

Luke 5:29-32

Is 2021 the Year you will grow exponentially in your relationship with God?

 

Are you ready to go deeper with God and meet with Him daily? I hope you will join me on a quest to live out your faith – LiveScriptureDaily – and find your purpose and passion in God’s written word.

 

I’ve been a Christian for a long time but I began this journey into a daily devotional walk with God in December 2015. My pastor challenged me to take my faith to the next level and spend dedicated time EVERY DAY with God. I resisted at first, citing all the usual excuses. He relented and I agreed to try for 30 days. Now, six years later, the habit is ingrained within me and I can’t help but turn to God and His Word first thing in the morning. This journey has transformed my life.

 

It would be an honor for you to join me on a daily walk toward a deeper relationship with God. It is my daily prayer that I can help you on your journey by providing a small encouragement of faith for you through my writing and podcasting.   

 

Take the first step 

 

The Journey to live out your faith daily begins with a prayer and a pledge. Use your own words but I encourage you to pray along this pattern: 

 

Father, by faith I want to take a step forward toward a closer walk with You. Help me begin spending daily time with You. I ask that You also help me move beyond having a faith that is relegated to only certain aspects of my life. Use my time with You to move me toward a genuine faith that is fully integrated into all aspects of my life, personal and professional. Grant me the grace to grow my faith in You one day at a time. Amen! 

 

In I Samuel 12, Jonathan made a pledge to David. Verse 16 says, “So Jonathan made this agreement with David and his family, and he asked the Lord to hold them responsible for keeping it.” 

 

Once again, with God’s help, use your own words but I encourage you to make a pledge along this pattern: With God’s help, I commend myself to God to make progress daily toward a closer walk with Him. My walk will be strengthened as I take in a little of God’s Word daily, spend time in prayer and share my learnings with close Christian friends/family. As I result, I pledge to apply my biblical insights into daily living and decisions.  

 

Now you are ready to take your next steps in this journey. Your journey encompasses three key elements: 

 

  1. Daily Time with God 
  1. Daily accountability
  1. Better Daily decisions  

 

Reminder: Doing this “daily” is a worthwhile goal but it is not an exercise in legalism. Doing it ‘daily’ is an aspiration not a requirement. You may want to begin with a goal of 3 to 5 days a week and build it from there. This is a relationship builder, not a ritual.   

 

  • Daily Time with God 
    • Once you have made the decision to spend time daily with God, I encourage you to follow the pattern of READ, REFLECT and WRITE. You can follow the 3Rs in a 10-15-minute timeframe or up to an hour or more. I started out at 20 minutes and now spend 45-60 minutes daily.

 

    • Read – Pick a Bible book and determine to read through it little by little each day. Don’t rush it. Take it slow and think more in terms of reading paragraphs or sections rather than reading chapters. Reading through books is better than just haphazardly picking verses. Books I recommend as you begin are Luke, John, Philippians, Ruth, Esther, and 1 Samuel. Also, you can do sections in Psalms or Proverbs (such as chapter 1-5, etc.).

 

    • After you have read a section, now focus some time on Reflection. This is time to prayerfully ask God for wisdom and insight; to ask and reflect on what the key message is. What does this teach us about mankind and/or what about the nature of God? Does it call us to act or think differently? What should we learn? Be prayerful and reflective. 

 

    • Finally, wRite something down. For many years I would read and reflect only. But it wasn’t until I trained myself to write daily, that the Word of God took on a deeper meaning than ever before. There are no rules about what to write. Just start writing, even if you feel you have nothing to say. Ask questions, make observations, write out applications, etc. I have found that writing opens me up to insights that I didn’t get by just reading and reflecting. This is a very powerful and impactful step.

 

  • Daily Accountability Partner 
    • Who is a reliable Christian friend or family member that you can partner with? Ask them if you can text them after you have your daily time with God with just a sentence or two about what you wrote down.

 

    • I followed this texting process with my Pastor in 2015 when I began and continued for 6 months until it was a habit. I expanded it to include my wife, a few close friends and my men’s Bible Study group. Now I have a small but growing blog following. 

 

  • Daily decisions and actions 
    • It is very easy to have a wonderful time alone with God in the morning and then not think of Him all day. 

 

    • Give yourself triggers or reminders throughout the day so that you can keep what you learned in the morning at the forefront of your mind throughout the day.

 

    • Record actions or decisions you made that are related to what you are learning from God’s Word. 

 

You are now ready to begin the journey of a lifetime. You will begin to make better decisions, find more hope and energy in your life’s purpose and discover greater resolve to persevere through the trials and challenges of life. It may not happen overnight, but the compounding power of daily time with God will yield powerful results.

 

May God bless you and give you hope as you take one step at a time, toward a closer walk with Him.

Amen!