New Year's Spiritual Resolutions

As the New Year approaches, people start thinking about a new future with new potential, new possibilities.  Many will focus on starting a healthy life change.  Some will begin a new diet or exercise program; others might try to kick a bad habit or search for a new job. While there are many good new year resolutions, the most important one, our spiritual conditioning, is usually overlooked.  Spiritual goals are important to help us discipline our bodies and our minds as well as grow in our understanding of the written Word of God. 

Over the past year did you notice a desire to grow closer to God or a distancing in your heart from Him? Perhaps you had a nudge here or there in the busy stream of daily demands urging you to stop and take time for God?  As the New Year approaches, consider putting your relationship with God as a first priority instead of treating it like an emergency room visit, stopping by only when you're in critical need. 

Statistics confirm less than 10% of people fulfill their New Year's resolutions. Most start out strong, but quit before the month of January has ended.  What you need to be successful is a genuine desire combined with a realistic plan.  Here are some tips to help you fulfill your Spiritual New Year's Resolution Goals.

Decide on a Specific Goal. 
Examples:

• I'm going to read the entire Bible this year.
  
• I want to increase my prayer life before God.
• I want to increase my worship time before God.
• I'm going to witness to more people.

Be Realistic in Your Goal Timeline. 
One of the largest obstacles facing goal achievement is unrealistic timelines.  A good goal such as reading the Bible in a year is specific and attainable if given a reasonable time frame to fulfill.  However, it would be unreasonable to expect to read the entire Bible in one day or even a week.   Trying to fulfill a desired goal in an unreasonable amount of time can lead to discouragement, disillusionment, and even failure.  If your goal is to read the entire Bible, finding a reading plan that breaks down the Bible into smaller portions of daily reading might be the most beneficial way to read the entire book. 

Break the Goal into Smaller Steps.
Having a specific goal and a realistic timeline are the first steps in achieving your spiritual goals.  Equally important is recognizing that it's okay to break your goals into smaller steps or actions that you can realistically fit into your daily lifestyle will be beneficial.   Desiring to increase your prayer life by praying 25 minutes a day may not actually fit into your schedule until late at night when you'll find yourself dozing off in the middle of your prayer time.  Breaking that large block of time into smaller blocks that can easily fit into your day will make your target goal of 25 minutes easier to attain.  For example, you could take 5 minutes in the morning before you get out of bed, 5 minutes at lunch, 5 minutes in the afternoon, 5 minutes at dinnertime and 5 minutes before bed to reach your 25 minute goal.

In addition to breaking down 1 large task in time, you could also devise smaller steps for a general goal.  For example if your spiritual goal is to increase your time with the Lord each week.  Exactly how you fulfill a general goal will be easier to quantify if you brake it down into smaller steps.  Some possible actions to increasing your time with God each week could be:

• I will read one bible verse a day.
  
• I will talk with God for 3 minutes while drinking morning coffee.
  
• I will spend 5 minutes of my daily commute singing to the Lord.
  
• I will write a list of 3 people each morning I can pray for throughout the day.
  

It's important to take the general concept of increasing the time with the Lord and break it into actions you can complete to fulfill the concept of what it looks like for you to spend time with the Lord.

Let me know some of your specific New Year's Resolutions. 

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