Thursday Devotional - Goals for 2020

Have you made some goals for this coming year? How well did you do at your goals from last year?

Joe, the kids and I have talked about our goals for this year, but we haven’t written them all down yet (maybe later today!).

Yesterday, my Mom brought out some of our goals from when my sisters and I were younger and read off some of them (go skiing, play a family game a week, read the Bible more, share the gospel with at least one person, etc.). It was fun to hear what some of our childhood goals were. Sometimes we even wrote goals for other family members (i.e. for Mom and Dad to have another baby or for baby Mary to learn how to walk)! 😊

God has a goal for us to drink less milk and eat more solid food:

Hebrews 5:11-14 ¹¹ We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

We eat more solid food from God’s Word by studying and applying it daily. Reading these devotionals or a chapter of the Bible daily isn’t beneficial unless we use it and put it into practice (“constant use,” as verse 14 says). I’ve learned that journaling what I’ve learned and how I plan to apply it is helpful.

What goals will you and I set for this year in line with God’s goals?

Happy New Year!

Alice  

Thursday Devotional - Hearing Only?

I often ask the kids “what did I say?!” Sometimes I ask it in response to them asking the same question they’ve just asked, hoping for a different answer! Other times, I ask it when I catch them not picking up after I asked them to pick up their toys. In either scenario, my kids heard and knew what I said but didn’t listen and obey.

Similarly, I can hear, read and know God’s Word, but what difference will it make in my life unless I apply and obey it?

Romans 2:13-16     ¹³ For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. ¹⁴ (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵ They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) ¹⁶ This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

Whether you plan to read the whole Bible in a year this year or have some other Bible study plan, end your time with at least one application question for yourself. I often write out my application question in a journal and then write out the answer. Sometimes I have to think about it and answer it the next day (or later).

James 1:22 & 25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says… But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.

Alice