My Prayer For 2013

"Dear God, my prayer for 2013 is a fat bank account and a thin body. Please don't mix these up like you did last year." – Unknown

New Year's resolutions seem to have more clout when they sound nice and spiritual. Another popular Christian New Year's resolution is this: I'm going to read through the Bible in a year! I'm going to start in Genesis and by the end of December I'll be finishing up in Revelation!

Again, I'm all for that! But that type of resolution is not a revolutionary statement. Try this on for size:

Revolutionary Statement Number Two: The Bible is living, accurate, and adequate. I'm going to allow it to speak to me.

"Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar." – Proverbs 30:5-6

God's Word is true. He told us that thousands of years ago and it's still true today. Not only is it accurate, it's adequate. We tend to add a lot of stuff to it like books, CDs, tapes, music, and videos. There is nothing wrong with those things, unless they start to take the place of your Bible.

The big problem with resolutions dealing with Bible reading is (again) that the focus is on you and what you do, rather than on God and what He does. Rather than making a Bible reading resolution, how about this for a New Year's revolution instead? Rather than trying to get through the Bible in a year, what if you ask God to let the Bible get through you this year?

See the difference!? How about opening yourself up and letting the living Word of God impact your life as it chooses? What would happen if your focus was not on reading a certain number of passages a day, but rather on allowing the Holy Spirit to soak the Word into your soul, and change who you are as a person, and change how you live every day?

Heavenly Father, I praise You that You have given me the Living Word – Your words – through which I can hear from You and experience You. When it comes to my Bible, focus my heart on my relationship with You moment by moment, rather than my reading habits over the course of a year. Amen.