New Year's Day
I'm a big believer in New Year's Resolutions.
I don't think they need to be big resolutions...I think a lot of times people make resolutions founded in vanity or insecurity and they also know they won't be able to keep them. So all it does it is reinforce their vanity and insecurity. Resolutions are good when you know it's something you can accomplish, something you can hope for. Nothing big and scary, something that will add to your life.
As I go on about this I know I sound like I'm a lot more thoughtful than I really am. On 2016 New Year's Eve I had a resolution: I wanted to go on a date in 2016. It seemed like a realistic idea. I wasn't resolving to find the love of my life, I wasn't even defining what constituted a "date." By the end of 2016 I had casually gone to coffee with a guy, and that was it and that was all I felt I needed.
Last year, as I have mentioned before, Nabeel Quereshi entered my life, though I never met him personally, his ministry affected me. I was watching a sermon of his on 2017 Eve and he inspired me to make this New Year's Resolution that I wrote down in my journal: I wanted to start a Bible-in-a-year reading plan.
As everyone who follows this project knows, it was 9 months later that I actually buckled down and committed to accomplishing that Resolution. Here I am January 1, 2018 and I am 104 days into a 365 day reading plan. And I think it is healthy and still humble to say: "good for me." I believe all New Year's Resolutions should result in just that "good for me."
I make New Year's Resolutions not to celebrate "National Ditch New Year's Resolution Day" on January 17 (which also happens to be my sister's birthday)...but to be able to say "good for me" by December 31.
If you have been following the Bible Diary instagram account (you can find the account in the side panel on the home page of this site) you have seen that I want to encourage you all to join me this year in reading the Bible!
It took me 9 months to commit to the resolution but once I did, I'm not lying, it was really easy to do! There were a lot of days that it was hard to bring myself to actually do it, I know that, but once I started reading I wanted to be there. Reading every day developed a hunger for the Word I had been hungry for...if that makes sense. I have always wanted to want to read the Bible as I do now. I want to read my Bible because I do read my Bible!
A lot of people put things on the internet to try and get you to buy something, to promote their business, to gain something for themselves. And I'm not going to lie, I'd love it if people followed my blog and all that...but this "talk" I'm giving right now is rooted in my sole desire to inspire you to read the Bible. It's so much easier than I ever knew: it's just reading.
Whatever strongholds you have, whatever deters you from opening up the Word of God and listening to what He has to say: the best way to fight those things is to open the Word of God and listen to what He has to say. "The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still" Exodus 14:14