Ryan Townsend points us to some more excellent questions to ask around this time of year. Here’s the jist of it:
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.
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What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
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What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
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What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
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In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
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What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
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What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
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For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
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What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
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What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
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What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?
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.
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What’s the most important decision you need to make this year?
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What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what’s one way you could simplify in that area?
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What’s the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?
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What habit would you most like to establish this year?
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Who do you most want to encourage this year?
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What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?
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What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?
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What’s one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?
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What’s one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?
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What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?
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What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?
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What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?
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In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?
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What’s the most important trip you want to take this year?
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What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?
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To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?
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What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?
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What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?
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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?
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What’s the most important new item you want to buy this year?
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In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?