Down-under round-up: 14 January 2016

On goals and resolutions, for the new year or any time!

My first round up for 2016 is a bit different. Over the Christmas/New Year holiday period, I’ve gathered links about New Year’s resolutions that I want to recommend to my church and friends.

I’m obviously late, but I think it’s usually better to start in February rather than January. Why so? Because in Australia we’re in the summer holiday season all January—at least the kids are—and that means routines are often very irregular. That’s generally going to be a bad time to set down a new habit.

Besides, it’s fine to begin a new Bible reading, prayer, church or godliness habit at any time of year. (And at any rate, this post means all the ideas are gathered in one spot to share next December for a second chance!)

So read and consider them in order. There might just be one or two things the Spirit prompts you to set as a goal or try as a habit.

By the way, a big thank you to The Gospel Coalition, who published most of these posts!

Tim Chester puts resolutions and change firmly in a gospel-centred context with ‘10 questions to ask of New Year’s resolutions’.

Don’t skip reading this! It takes us much deeper than habits and trying harder, to sin, the heart and God’s grace. Chester helps us find the right way to complete this sentence: “The reason Christians should want to change is to…”

Then here’s Joe Carter on understanding the process of habits a bit more: ‘Don’t just make a resolution—make a habit’.

A good list of Bible reading plans for 2016 from Nathan W Bingham, wide-angled, and featuring different strategies.

‘How to change your mind’ (or why you should read books of the Bible ten times in a row!): a road less travelled, but highly recommended as life-transforming by Joe Carter.

If you’ve repeatedly failed when using plans to try and read the Bible in a year, you might be most helped by this from Garrett Kell: ‘Why I plan to read less of the Bible this year’.

Christopher Ash gives us ‘7 ways to become a better sermon listener’. Related to this, Erik Raymond gives some thoughtful suggestions on how you might give your pastor sermon feedback.

Perhaps tellingly, I did not notice any articles on establishing or improving a daily personal prayer habit. However, for those who have not yet come across it, I will warmly recommend the PrayerMate app as the tool that has most helped me to be regular at some depth and breadth in my prayer life over the last 2-3 years.

Something I plan to personalize and insert into my PrayerMate are Peter Adam’s cycle of seven daily prayers for each week:

• Introduction to the daily prayers

1. Sunday
2. Monday
3. Tuesday
4. Wednesday
5. Thursday
6. Friday
7. Saturday

Now is as good a time as any to make this commitment: ‘Three reasons to get to church on time’. I have to say, this is a big problem in many places from the perspective of pastors I speak to!

Somewhat tangentially, here are 12 rules of practice from the great jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. No spiritual connection, except that music is a wonderful part of God’s creation and Christians often want to encourage musicians to develop—not least to serve in music ministry in their congregations!

Image of the week

To finish, here’s an image I made of Garrett Kell’s tweet-sized prayer for the New Year: