“Keep a close watch on yourself,” wrote Paul in 1 Timothy 4:16. Centuries before, the Lord said to His people, “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:5). As Donald Whitney has written, “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.”1http://biblicalspirituality.org/10-questions-to-ask-at-the-start-of-a-new-year-or-on-your-birthday/
On a recent Sunday we asked, “How do you actually do this? What would this practice actually look like?”
For the past couple of years I’ve benefited from the following resource by Dr. Whitney. It starts with ten questions designed to help us self-evaluate ourselves in the light of God’s word. A series of follow-up questions guide us even deeper as we scan the dashboard of our heart.
Reviewing these questions regularly would be a great way to practice 1 Timothy 4:16. In fact, Whitney suggests asking them of yourself at the beginning of each new year—be that your birthday on on New Years. With January 1 coming up, why not print these off, grab a notebook and pen, and prayerfully spend some time with them over the holidays?
1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?
http://biblicalspirituality.org/10-questions-to-ask-at-the-start-of-a-new-year-or-on-your-birthday/
Read the follow-up questions here: 10 Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year or On Your Birthday.
