What if 2016 was a year where you grew in your relationship with God more than you ever have before? What if 2016 was the year you finally put your greatest struggles in the rear view mirror? What if 2016 was the year where you finally understood the Bible, God’s story, His grand narrative?
I believe 2016 can be all these things and more. The question is, do you want it to be?
How to Make 2016 a Year of Spiritual Growth
Write Your Goals Down
What is God calling you to? What are the outcomes you wish to see in your life? Don’t just leave it conceptual, but write it down in a positive statement. I will read the entire Bible by December 31, 2016. Do you see how that was structured? It’s a positive statement with a deadline.
Deadlines give goals fuel. If you don’t create a deadline for a goal, you won’t make it happen.
Make a Plan With the End in Mind
Goals are great and goals with deadlines are even better. But they mean nothing if a plan isn’t created around them in order to create daily habits of stepping toward them. Often times we think that achieving goals is all about huge bursts of effort, but I’ve discovered that achieving goals is more about daily habits that get me a step forward.
If your goal is to read the entire Bible by December 31, 2016, you’ll want to make a plan on how you will achieve this. There are plenty of daily Bible reading plans on YouVersion, the mobile Bible app.
Orient Your Goals Around Spiritual Disciplines
Since a plan is essential to achieving your goal of spiritual growth in 2016, you need to develop habits (or disciplines) that are geared toward that end. A great way to do this is to focus on these primary spiritual disciplines:
- Serving
- Giving
- Praying
- Bible reading
If you don’t serve in your local church, get that status changed. If you don’t give to your local church financially, get that status changed. If you don’t pray every day to your great God, get that status changed. If you don’t read the Bible daily, get that status changed.
Take it One Day at a Time
Many people have claimed that forming a new habit takes 21 days. But this isn’t always the case. Nonetheless, a habit takes one day of commitment over and over again until it’s automatic. It’s as simple as that. Make it happen today.
A Great Plan to Get You Started
Instead of leaving you to go find a random devotional or reading plan, I have created a 28-day experience called Journey to Knowing God. It’s free and it is packed with a ton of value. You won’t find a free devotional like this anywhere else.
Journey contains:
- 4 inspiring and insightful audio sessions
- Daily prompts to take the principles in the audio sessions and apply them to your everyday life
This will get you started in developing habits that will help you achieve your spiritual growth goals in 2016. Once you’ve gone through Journey I highly recommend you start the One-Year Bible Reading Plan on YouVersion.
Will 2016 be the year that you make significant strides in your walk with God? That’s up to you.
And remember that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). You’re not in this alone. God will cause the seeds you sow to grow. Now let’s get busy sowing.
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