Today, as you think about the newness of the New Year, remember, part of what God’s done in the Gospel is to take away the old and make all things new.
In fact, Revelation 21:5 says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Rest in this glorious reality today.
Do you want to read the whole Bible?
The average person reads 200 to 250 words per minute; there are about 775,000 words in the Bible; therefore it takes less than 10 minutes a day to read the whole Bible in a year.
(For those who like details, there’s a webpage devoted to how long it takes to read each book of the Bible. And if you want a simple handout that has every Bible book with a place to put a check next to every chapter, go to Don Whitney’s checklist.)
(Justin Taylor provides a post on reading the Bible each year, and he’s my source for the above information.)
I love using the ESV Daily Reading Bible.
You might need lots of grace to accomplish this, so maybe you could try to Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers.
There are many Reading Plans Using the ESV.
I’ve distributed the Navigator’s Discipleship Journal Plan a lot.
People have also benefitted from the Bible Eater Plan.
In terms of a newer resource, J.R. Vassar’s Church At The Cross has a Bible Reading Plan that is sensitive to the church calendar (think Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Ordinary Times). They have daily reading bookmarks you can download.
Tolle Lege! Take up and read!
My former seminary professor Don Whitney has done a great service is helping us think through some questions to start the new year. Here’s how he begins:
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.
I’d encourage you to download the questions and consider how God may redirect and/or refocus you in the coming year.
There are some amazing tools I use to think through goals and priorities for the coming year. Each December I try to think about what different priorities need to characterize my life and ministry. Some tools I use are:
Don Whitney’s Questions to Ask At the Start of A New Year
Justin Buzzard’s Monthly Day Away to Think and Pray
Mark Driscoll’s Biblical Man Worksheet
Isaac Watts’ Questions for a Pastor (Parts 1 and 2)
Use these tools to see your heart and make adjustments accordingly.