"Home is the nicest word there is." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
In love with Jesus. Wife to my best friend & man I love more than life. Mama to 4 amazing God given blessings. Proud Homemaker & Homeschooler. Living life with it's ups and downs and blogging about it!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Questions for the New Year (With MY answers!!!)

Nancy Leigh DeMoss has this list of questions at her website, Revive Our Hearts.com . I am going to post them here, as well, to make it easier to keep up with. I am going to be answering these a little at a time over the next few weeks and months. They are not something I can answer quickly and lightly. So, if you want to join in, I would be happy to hear your answers to these questions! I can't get Mr. Linky to stay on here but you can leave a link in your comments if you want to post your answers on your blog! Maybe I will get Mr. Linky up soon! I've never done this before so just bear with me! :o) UPDATED: MY ANSWERS ARE POSTED BELOW!!!!



Here are the list of questions:



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.



1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
*Really listen to Him. Stop and Listen. Accept His Will.


2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
* To mend family relationships.


3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
* Spend more time together just listening to one another.


4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
* Prayer. I SO want to become so close to my God that I literally pray without ceasing. I want to pray about anything and everything. I will begin by praying morning, noon and night and start filling in between. I will start taking deep breaths and thinking about situations before I proceed without prayer. I will keep a prayer journal to record God's answers to my prayers.


5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
*The computer. I love Sarah's ideas. I believe that I will implement some of those.


6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
*This one is hard. I believe that I could just be more "present". Not so much in attendance but in everything that I can be. Just be more involved in everyone's lives. Feel others pain.


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

*For the guys that my husband works with and their families.

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

* I will enjoy my children and be more patient. I will try my hardest to be a more understanding thoughtful wife and mother. I will not be so demanding on my husband.


9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
* Pray without ceasing; just little breath prayers here and there or prayers in my head. Keep a prayer journal. Try to really focus on prayer.


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

*Spend more time individually with my children. Talk to them. Watch them and find out who they really are. Love on them and give them loads of praise. Pray for them and their future.



In addition to these ten questions, here are twenty-one more to help you “Consider your ways.” Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.


11. What’s the most important decision you need to make this year?



12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what’s one way you could simplify in that area?



13. What’s the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?



14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?



15. Who do you most want to encourage this year?



16. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?



17. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?



18. What’s one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?



19. What’s one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?



20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?



21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?



22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?



23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?



24. What’s the most important trip you want to take this year?



25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?



26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?



27. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?



28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?



29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?



30. What’s the most important new item you want to buy this year?



31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?


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.


If you have found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace—in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc.—where you can review them more frequently than once a year.


So let’s evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage” (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let’s also remember our dependence on our King who said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).


© 2003 by Donald S. Whitney. Used with permission. www.SpiritualDisciplines.org/NewYear.html



I would love to have you join me in answering these tough questions! If you do not want to post, just leave some answers in your comments. I believe that these questions are going to be a tremendous blessing to me and my family in 2008 and every year from now on!



Happy New Year! Love and Prayers, Julie

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great idea! I saw this list a couple of weeks ago - it's a lot to ponder. Thanks for your sweet comment about Elijah & your prayers!

Denise said...

Great questions my friend.

In Light of the Truth... said...

ooo, I'll be back to read through these more thoroughly and start thinking of answers! I'm so glad you're doing this, Julie!

In Light of the Truth... said...

okay, my answers are posted, so go check my blog! Thanks for directing me to this! What great questions!

Denise said...

Your answers are wonderful.

In Light of the Truth... said...

Loved your answers! I'm glad you shared them with us!

If we don't find Him in the small things, how will we ever find Him in the big ones? ~Elisabeth Elliot