2014 : Questions to Ask Before the Start of a New Year

By Dr. Don Whitney 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. 1. What's one thing you could do in 2014 to increase your enjoyment of God? 2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do in 2014? 3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life in 2014? 4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress in 2014, 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 in 2014? 6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church? 7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently in 2014? 8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make 2014 different from last year? 9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life in 2014? 10. What single thing that you plan to do in 2014 will matter most in 10 years? In eternity?  In addition to these 10 questions, here are 21 more to help you "Consider your ways." Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month in 2014. 11. What's the most important decision you need to make in 2014? 12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what's one way you could simplify in that area? 13. What's the most important need you feel burdened to meet in 2014? 14. What habit would you most like to establish in 2014? 15. Who is the person you most want to encourage in 2014? 16. What is your most important financial goal in 2014 , and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it? 17. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life in 2014? 18. What's one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) in 2014? 19. What's one thing you could do in 2014 to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren? 20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read in 2014? 21. What one thing do you most regret about 2013, and what will you do about it in 2014? 22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly in 2014? 23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it in 2014? 24. What's the most important trip you want to take in 2014? 25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve in 2014? 26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount in 2014? 27. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute in 2014? 28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better in 2014, and what will you do about it? 29. 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? 30. What's the most important new item you want to buy in 2014? 31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it in 2014?   The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn't considered the question. If you've found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace —  in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc. —  where you can review them more frequently than once a year. So let's evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage" (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let's also remember our dependence on our King who said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Happy Holiday  Let's Make 2014, A GREAT One:) !!!!