5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider
your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never
have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves,
but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with
holes.
Once, when the people of God had become careless in their
relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai.
"Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to
reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod
spirituality in light of what God had told them.
Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to
pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along
from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going
and where we should be going.
The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop,
look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask
prayerfully in the presence of God.
1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase
your enjoyment of God?
2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask
God to do this year?
3. What's the single most important thing you could do to
improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make
progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life,
and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen
your church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this
year?
8. What's the most important way you will, by God's
grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer
life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will
matter most in 10 years? In eternity?
In addition to these 10 questions, here are 21 more to
help you "Consider your ways." Think on the entire list at one
sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.
11. What's the most important decision you need to make
this year?
12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and
what's one way you could simplify in that area?
13. What's the most important need you feel burdened to
meet this year?
14. What habit would you most like to establish this
year?
15. Who is the person you most want to encourage this
year?
16. What is your most important financial goal this year,
and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?
17. What's the single most important thing you could do
to improve the quality of your work life this year?
18. What's one new way you could be a blessing to your
pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?
19. What's one thing you could do this year to enrich the
spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?
20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want
to read this year?
21. What one thing do you most regret about last year,
and what will you do about it this year?
22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek
most earnestly this year?
23. In what area of your life do you most need growth,
and what will you do about it this year?
24. What's the most important trip you want to take this
year?
25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this
year?
26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an
unprecedented amount this year?
27. What's the single most important thing you could do
to improve the quality of your commute this year?
28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to
understand better this year, and what will you do about it?
29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of
advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?
30. What's the most important new item you want to buy
this year?
31. In what area of your life do you most need change,
and what will you do about it this year?
The value of many of these questions is the fact that
they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating
which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you
remember to encourage that person than if you hadn't considered the question.
If you've found these questions helpful, you might want
to put them someplace — in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc. —
where you can review them more frequently than once a year.
So let's evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and
live this new year with biblical diligence.
Dear Lord, thank You for the New Year. Help us to focus
on the things that will bring us closer to You as well as bringing others to
You. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
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