Today's Our Daily Bread reading was very helpful. It talked about soul-improvement rather than self-improvement for the coming year. One of the key bible references concerning our purpose in life on earth is Micah 6:8:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
To do this we need the help of the Holy Spirit and thankfully God has promised: "out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being" (Ephesian 3:16).
So to be specific, what commitment am I going to make this coming year? Last year I was richly blessed by committing to writing this blog (and a somewhat less tangible promise of loving my wife more - which did result in my switching worship to her church and committing time and energy to her, and now our home church group). My prayer life has been very undisciplined. I think dedicating an hour a week is realistic. I will be journaling my prayers and occasionally share any "God-sighting" on this blog.
I will also commit to memorizing scripture weekly, beginning with this verse:
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, (Titus 2:11-12). The promise continues (but I will only memorize verses 11-12):
while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (verses 13-14).
On the compassion front, I have sponsored 2 children. I will commit to writing them once a month. I think by writing to them I will be praying for them as well.
I am excited to watch and see what God has in store for me in 2014 which I will share on this blog.
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