SPIRITUAL FITNESS FOR THE NEW YEAR

“Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.   (1 Timothy 4:7b-8 NIV)

A new year invites us to reset our priorities. Many of us will focus on physical health -- dieting, exercising, or finally using that gym membership. Paul reminds us this has value, but he also points us to something far more lasting: training in godliness.

John Ortberg writes in "The Life You've Always Wanted" that if we want to grow spiritually, we must “stop trying and start training.” Trying depends on momentary effort. Training builds steady habits that shape us over time. Spiritual growth doesn’t happen by accident; it grows through intentional practices that open our hearts to God’s transforming work.

This year, consider simple rhythms that strengthen your soul: Prayer as a daily conversation with God. Scripture as nourishment for your soul and guidance for the journey. Worship as a posture of reverence and gratitude. Community as the place where we support one another and grow best.  Devotional reading as the source of encouragement from those who are spiritual trainers. These practices are the gymnasium of the soul. And the promise is clear: godliness brings blessing not only for eternity, but for the life you’re living right now.

If you know of someone like you who would like to be part of a daily spiritual fitness routine this year, encourage them to follow this blog or subscribe to this e-mail through the link at the bottom of the column to the right.

As you step into the new year, may you train -- not try -- and may Christ be formed in you more deeply with every step.   

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™  

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PERSEVERANCE IN DISCIPLESHIP

“Look to the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.”  (1 Chronicles 16:11)

We survive in the way of faith not because we have extraordinary stamina but because God is righteous. Christian discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God's righteousness and less and less attention to our own; finding the meaning of our lives not by probing our moods and motives and morals but by believing God's will and purposes; making a map of the faithfulness of God, not charting the rise and fall of our enthusiasms.  It is out of such a reality that we acquire perseverance. 

-- Eugene Peterson in “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction”

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THE COMING OF ANOTHER YEAR

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears what I say and believes in the One who sent Me has eternal life.”  (John 5:24)

With the coming of another year we are reminded that time is passing.  The grains of sand are dripping through the hourglass; sometimes they seem to pass so quickly.  That is a frightening thing for those who have no hope.  But for those of us whose citizenship is in heaven, it's only good and it's only right.

-- Max Lucado  

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A FRESH START FOR THE NEW YEAR

"Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new”. (2 Corinthians 5:17, The Message).

[Renovation] takes solid work, requires real change in behavior, and sometimes the recognition that failing will be part of the journey. A fascinating and convicting book is “Renovation of the Heart” by Dallas Willard. It’s one to put on your reading list – and recognize that you might be reading one chapter over and over and over. He spends some interesting time thinking about the role of the will and the relation to the Holy Spirit in this “renovation”, in becoming “new creatures”.

The key to this renovation, however, as opposed to the fad of New Year’s resolutions, is that spiritual fresh starts are based in a power that is not our own power. In fact, we have to give up our “own power” in order to be effective, and that makes all the difference.

So looking at that verse again, we can be assured that when we unite with the Messiah, when we are reborn in Christ, when the Holy Spirit becomes part of our hearts and minds… we have a true chance at a fresh start. 

-- Lt. Colonel Carol Seiler, the Salvation Army

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FAITH INFORMING LIFE

There is no need to multiply examples of what is so patently an essential condition of the Christian walk. We are saved through faith – an unflagging, unwavering attachment to the person of Jesus Christ.

What is the depth and quality of your faith commitment? In the last analysis, faith is not a way of speaking or even thinking; it is a way of living. Maurice Blondel said, “If you want to know what a person really believes, don’t listen to what he says but watch what he does.” Only the practice of faith can verify what we believe. Does faith permeate the whole of your life? Does it form your judgments about success, about death? Does it influence the way you read the newspaper? Do you have a divine sense of humor that see through people and events into the unfolding plan of God? When things are turbulent on the surface of your life, do you retain a quiet calm, firmly fixed in ultimate reality? As Therese of Lisieux said, “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things are passing.”

How has your faith shaped this past year? How will it shape the year ahead? 

-- Adapted from “Reflections for Ragamuffins” by Brennan Manning

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PRESSING FORWARD IN THE NEW YEAR

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:13b-14  NIV)

It is a mistake to be always turning back to recover the past.  The law for Christian living is not backward, but forward; not for experiences that lie behind, but for doing the will of God, which is always ahead and beckoning us to follow. Leave the things that are behind, and reach forward to those that are before, for on each new height to which we attain, there are the appropriate joys that befit the new experience. Don't fret because life's joys are fled. There are more in front. Look up, press forward, the best is yet to be! 

-- F. B. Meyer from "Our Daily Walk" in “Christianity Today”, Vol. 40, no. 1. 

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A LONGING IN MY SOUL

Dear Lord,

In the aftermath of Christmas celebrations, please tender my heart to the cradle and the cross. So often in this year I have sensed a deep longing in my soul, a loud yet silent lament for all that is not right. So often I have felt stymied and stagnant, incapable of doing the next thing or even knowing what that next thing should be.

The verse I have whispered in the quiet mornings (and shouted sometimes through tears) whispers again today: “Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go for to You I lift up my soul.” (Psalm 143:8)

And so, for today, in the in between of the cradle and the cross, I close my eyes and remember the sweetness of this season even as I long for the new year to bring the end of suffering.

Show me the way to go today, Lord. Just for today. For to You I lift up my soul.

Amen

-- Elizabeth Musser, from her blog www.elizabethmusser.wordpress.com/blog

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MY RESOLUTION

I won't look back; God knows the fruitless efforts,

The wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets;

I'll leave them all with Him who blots the record,

And mercifully forgives and then forgets.

I won't look forward; God sees all the future,

The road that, short or long, will lead me home,

And He will face with me its every trial

And bear with me the burdens that may come.

But I'll look up into the face of Jesus,

For there my heart can rest, my fears are stilled;

And there is joy and love, and light for darkness,

And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled.

-- Annie Johnson Flint

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TAKING INVENTORY

“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”  (Colossians 3:1-4 NRSV)

As we stand here at the beginning of a New Year it is a good time to reflect on the year that is ending and look forward into the year that is soon to begin. It is also a good time for God’s people to take inventory of their walk with the Lord. We should take a very close look at where we are in our relationship with Him. We need to examine ourselves and see where we have been, where we are and where the Lord wants us to be. This passage gives us the opportunity and the challenge to do just that.

-- Yohan Perera in a sermon entitled “New Year Sermon: An Old Challenge for a New Year"


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FITNESS TRAINING FOR THE NEW YEAR

"Physical training is of some value," Paul tells us in I Timothy 4:8, "but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."

My guess is that our hopes and resolutions for the New Year are quite similar. Like myself, many of you have probably committed to dieting, making better use of your long neglected gym membership and reestablishing a quiet time with God. Our commitments to dieting and gym membership require elaborate preparations and consistent training. After all, we must not only choose our diet, but we must train ourselves to stay away from sweets or that extra serving of mashed potatoes. Similarly, we must not only carve out time in our schedule for the gym, we must commit ourselves to, and stick with, a rigorous training schedule.

Unfortunately, when it comes to our spiritual fitness, we often fail to make any specific preparations at all. So, while we try to spend more time in prayer, we fail to schedule time to be on our knees. Likewise, although we would like to explore fasting, we fail to train ourselves to sustain a fast. While we try to read the Bible, we fail to place ourselves in a small group Bible study that will hold us accountable. If you are like me, you know that trying often gets us nowhere. As John Ortberg teaches so clearly in "The Life You've Always Wanted", if we want to grow into godliness we need to "stop trying and start training." We need to train ourselves in godliness. Spiritual practices and disciplines will help us to grow in the godliness that holds "promise for both the present life and the life to come." 

-- Adapted from the Christian Living Newsletter from Christianbook.com 


SPIRITUAL FITNESS NOTE: If you know of someone like you who would like to be part of a daily spiritual fitness routine this year, encourage them to follow this blog, find us on Facebook, or subscribe via e-mail.


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BETWEEN THE ENDING AND THE BEGINNING

N0TE: As we end the year, maybe there is something -- a bad relationship, a sin, a habit, a desire, a self-centeredness, etc. -- that you would like to leave behind. I have adapted a prayer from Patricia Wilson that you might want to use on this final day of 2018. Fill in the blanks with something you would like to leave behind. -- DW

BETWEEN THE ENDING AND THE BEGINNING

I’ve tried everything, I can’t think of anything else to do, Lord. So I give this ____________ to You. I ask for nothing -- no special favors, no divine interventions, no sudden revelations. I simply place this in Your hands. And in giving it to You, I feel great relief. It is done. I have finally given up and accepted this ending. I know that from this moment on, my life will be different, and I accept this beginning as well.

Give me the strength to let all else go. Keep me from returning to this ____________. Remind me that I have given it to You.

Lead me to the higher ground, dear Jesus, where I can leave this ____________ behind. Fill me instead with Your peace and the knowledge that You are with me.

Be in this space between the ending and the beginning. It is a scary place for me as I begin to work through my life without this ____________ in it. Be between what was and what is to come.

Draw me closer to You in this time between the ending and the beginning. Let me see the place ahead not as a place to be feared but as a place You have prepared for me. 

-- Adapted from Patricia Wilson in “Quiet Spaces”

WALKING INTO THE NEW YEAR

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”  (Isaiah 41:10 NIV)

We have places of fear inside of us, but we have other places as well… places with names like trust and hope and faith.

-- Parker J. Palmer

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FINISHING THE DAY… AND THE YEAR

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson


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DIRECTING OUR PATHWAY IN THE NEW YEAR

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths."  (Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV)

If this is to be a Happy New Year, a year of usefulness, a year in which we shall live to make this earth better, it is because God will direct our pathway. How important then, to feel our dependence upon Him!

-- Matthew Simpson

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LIVING THE NEW YEAR DAY BY DAY

As we grow older in life, years somehow seem to shorten and New Year's Day approaches with an ever increasing tempo. The more mature we get, the more we realize that time is only relative; how we live means more than how long we live. Haply also we do not live by years, but by days. In His wisdom God does not show us all that lies ahead. So we enter a new year to live it day by day. What is past is past. Today we start anew, and what we do today will make our life for tomorrow. Chin up, shoulders straight, eyes agleam, let us salute the New Year, and each day let us follow more faithfully, more courageously, more daringly the lead of our great Captain who bids us follow Him.

-- William Thomson Hanzsche


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PREPARED FOR WHATEVER THE NEW YEAR BRINGS

I do not advise that we end the year on a somber note. The march, not the dirge, has ever been the music of Christianity. If we are good students in the school of life, there is much that the years have to teach us. But the Christian is more than a student, more than a philosopher. He is a believer, and the object of his faith makes the difference, the mighty difference. Of all persons the Christian should be best prepared for whatever the New Year brings. He has dealt with life at its source. In Christ he has disposed of a thousand enemies that other men must face alone and unprepared. He can face his tomorrow cheerful and unafraid because yesterday he turned his feet into the ways of peace and today he lives in God. The man who has made God his dwelling place will always have a safe habitation. 

-- A.W. Tozer in The Warfare of the Spirit


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BACK TO THE BASICS FOR A NEW YEAR

If you and I want the coming year to be marked by a very real newness within, we would do well to review some of the ancient practices which good people have found to be helpful over the centuries.  I pastored in Green Bay,Wisconsin during part of the period that Vince Lombardi was coaching the Packers to football immortality.  Mr. Lombardi was often asked about trick plays and the secrets of coaching; he always answered that it was simply a matter of blocking and tackling.  There were no new, clever ideas that really mattered unless one mastered the fundamentals of the game.

 

I've concluded that the same thing is true of the spiritual life.  Books, retreats, and religious conferences are constantly promising us some new formula for spiritual vitality.  Some of them may stimulate us for a time.  But in the end, we'll need to come back to "blocking and tackling" -- such basic matters as Bible reading, prayer, group worship and sharing, and good devotional reading.

 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in Reading the Signs

 

 

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NEW YEAR'S GOALS

At the beginning of each calendar year, I sit down and pray about what God wants to accomplish through me. In the back of my mind I have evaluated the previous year's goals, which I placed before God last year. I like to set challenging goals, but in accordance with God's will for my life. If my goals are pleasing to Him, then the Holy Spirit inside of me will allow me to feel good about my direction for each new year. 

-- Wendy Ward, professional golfer, in Sports Spectrum


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