2017 Goals

2017 is upon us! Within 7 or 8 days, it'll be January and we'll embark on another 365 days. For many it's a time to create New Years Resolutions; eating right, get that new gym membership... and though some may not think it's worth doing, I always think its good to set achievable goals as well as challenge yourself to build up one's discipline by setting resolutions. It's a time where everyone's doing it, so you might as well?

Reading The Whole Bible
Ambitious right? I remember the first time I read through it was with "The Daily Message", a one year bible given to me for my baptism back in 2008. I was pleasantly surprised with how I was able to keep up with it, even though none of it probably stuck with me - in fact fairly quickly, it became more of a chore - but I still did it! I do remember hearing that one has to read the whole bible over a couple of times before truly getting a full understanding. But that's not the main reason why i've set this resolution this year.

As I've grown this past year, I've learnt and have realized how incredibly important it is to have a biblical worldview, to mould and inform our consciences so that when we are faced with situations of any kind, we would know how to respond and act in a way that aligns with scripture and a way that honours God. How much has the media and other worldly influences informed our consciences? From YouTubers to celebrity culture, the music on the radio to the movies in the cinemas, our consciences are being informed directly/indirectly whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not. It's not that we have to completely cut those things out of our lives, but it's helpful to know and be able to differentiate between things of this world and things above.

This past year, i've also found myself reading the Old Testament more but it's been all over the place. It's quite hard to understand when you just plop yourself in the middle of the OT and expect to somehow understand the cultural context and the stories that happened previously (even with a study bible), so I want to read the bible (especially the OT) from cover to cover so that I would have a better overall understanding of what's happening. With that being said, I've also decided to follow a chronological bible reading plan which you can find HERE. Even when I was reading the Psalms earlier this year, i've always been curious as to where it fits in the overarching narrative in the Bible.

Since ALL scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16), and if we truly believe that God's Word is the ultimately authority in our lives, we need to know what it says in order to apply it! All the more reason why it's so incredibly important to be in God's Word regularly. Even if it seems dull or unfruitful, trust that God is using your time in His Word to grow, teach, convict and comfort you!

Pray More
This isn't much of a resolution that can be tracked exactly, but I really want to grow in my prayer life more. Recently, i've actually found myself incredibly distracted during prayer. My thoughts run rampant and at the core of it, it's just disrespectful to God, the one I am speaking to. I would like to cultivate my prayer life more so that prayer would be my natural response in any situation, good and bad.

I remember going to a Chinese church whilst I was in Hong Kong and actually being able to understand 90% of the sermon (which I was pleasantly surprised by) which was on prayer. Here's one of the analogies that the pastor shared which I really liked - if one tried to turn on a light, but found that it didn't turn on, they would most likely try to figure out what happened - check the fuse, change the lightbulb - they wouldn't just ignore it and walk away. In the same way, when we pray and it seems like God doesn't respond, we really should continue to pursue it, continue in prayer rather than saying "oh well" and forget about it. If we truly claim to be believers who know and love the LORD, wouldn't we want to communicate with Him? What does it say about our faith if our walks are half-hearted and prayer-less? I do think many times prayer is just swept off to the side, but it's so important and I hope I can grow in that more this year. There's so much in scripture that talks about praying, how to pray, how not to pray etc...

a clip from 'War Room' shown during the sermon

Feel free to keep me accountable on these things! May 2017 be a year of growth and sanctification, and may all our choices by edifying and glorifying to the LORD!