Making a List, Checking It Twice

I think it is a good idea to start a new year with new resolutions. Yeah, we know that as the days go by, it is easy to let resolutions slip by the wayside. If you are looking for a few good questions, or a great list of resolutions, check out Pyromaniacs for a start. I especially appreciate Dan Phillips posting Jonathan Edwards 70 resolutions. Now there is a daunting list! My husband and I had decided a few days ago that we would check out this list from Don Whitney that Dan has also included. Here are the ten questions that I am initially answering but may change as I go over the list with my husband.

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going.

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. Don Whitney

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

Prayerfully reading his Word and making time with Him a priority.

2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

Bring my children to salvation, and restore a marriage as well.

3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

Be faithful in our devotional time and encouraging one another in the Lord.

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

I have two. Faithfully reading the Word and be more focused in prayer.

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

The Internet! Cut down on my time on the internet.

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

We are fairly new at our church, and we drive an hour to get there, so it will be helpful if we can be more committed to serve.

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

My children, and my husband's children.

8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?

I won't waste so much time on trivial things.

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?


Believe that God really cares about my prayers.

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?


Be a testimony of the grace, mercy, sovereignty of God in my life and conversation. Be bold in my witness to the glory of God.