10 Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year

I hope everyone has enjoyed the BC series as much as I have. It’s been a great journey and I’m looking forward to finishing the journey in the upcoming year as we work through the entire New Testament after a couple of months in Psalms and Proverbs. There is some really cool stuff ahead for us – Genesis to Revelation in two years!

I love New Year’s resolutions. I always feel like I’m getting a fresh start with spiritual and physical disciplines in my life. I encourage you not to wait until Friday morning to frantically jot down a few ideas for the sake of having resolutions. Rather, start thinking about your resolutions today. Invest some time in the process and set yourself up for success with prayerfulness and planning.

Here is a helpful article from Donald Whitney on 10 Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year (excerpt below):

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 ten years? In eternity?

Whitney continues:

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple 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.

Whitney also offers an additional 21 questions to help us “consider our ways.”

Read the whole article here.

Here is helpful post from blogger, Justin Taylor,  on  D.M. Lloyd-Jones and his work Spiritual Depression titled, Resolutions and Regret.

I plan on having my New Year’s resolutions written by Monday or Tuesday and I encourage you to have them done early as well. Happy New Year!