S – Spiritual Growth
P – Physical Health
A – Academic / Career / Profession Occupation
C – Community / Social Life
E – Execution
S – Spiritual Growth
How can you grow spiritually?
i. Spiritual Feeding
Resolve in your heart to complete reading through the Bible in 1-2 years’ time. Resolve to honour God by attending each and every Sunday Worship. Be attentive in service and take down sermon notes and endeavour to apply in your daily life what you have heard. Resolve in your heart and commit to do your daily Bible time with greater understanding, always asking God how you can apply what you have learned.
ii. Evangelism
You can consider enlarging your gospel tent. Pray that you may share the gospel and bring 3 friends to church.
iii. Practice of Holiness
Resolve in your heart to surgically remove any sinful habit that can cause you to stray and sin. Choose the circle of friends who do not indulge in sinful activities. Avoid visiting internet websites where you can stumble, fall into temptation and sin against God.
iv. Service
Resolve in your heart to be faithful in serving the LORD in 2019. Always do your best in your areas of service.
v. Giving
Resolve in your heart to give of the first fruits of your earnings. Give your best and not your spares. Give sacrificially to God.
P – Physical Health
My physiotherapist advises me to have regular exercise – 30 minutes of weekly exercise in general will eliminate many pains and aches in the body. Resolve in your heart to exercise regularly. You may commit your lunch hour, evening or morning time for exercise. A 20-minute brisk walk or run on alternate days is a good way to start. You may consider going for a swim, a game of badminton, basketball, tennis or golf. Eat healthily. A study has shown that timing of your meals is important “Eat Breakfast Like a King, Lunch Like a Prince, and Dinner Like a Pauper.” The same food takes longer time to digest in the night as compared to the morning. Be fit and healthy so that you can be agile and alert and be able to best serve God and others. A worrying trend with the mobile devices and social media is that with these, we lose precious sleep. A person needs an average of about 7-8 hours of sleep, with teens requiring at least 8 hours. Resolve in your heart to put aside your work and devices after 10pm so that your body can have sufficient time to rest and re-juvenate. You will find that with adequate sleep, you will be more productive and are able to perform significantly better.
A – Academic / Career / Profession Occupation
Students, endeavour to work hard and do your best in your studies. A secret to success is knowing something about everything and everything about something. Spend time to understand the concepts. Avoid memory or rote learning. Once you have grasped the concepts, the subject will be easy for you. Listen and participate actively in class. Have a teachable heart and do not be afraid to ask questions in class. This is the only environment that you can make mistakes and learn from them. Be disciplined, organise your notes and do not procrastinate. Above all else, seek God first in all that you do. Make an effort to rest from your studies on the LORD’s day. Study hard from Monday through Saturday. Take a break from studies on Sunday. Rest your mind and body so that you can be re-charged for another week of learning ahead of you.
C – Community / Social Life
It is said that you need to spend time and effort to make friends. Resolve this year to make at least 3 good friends. One way is to commit to come regularly for cell group meetings. Plan time to call or go for a meal or a game with your friend. Maintain contact. This could be part of your evangelistic outreach by befriending unbelieving or “un-churched” friends. For brethren, make an effort to build lasting godly Christian relationships.
E – Execution
Review your resolutions and take definite steps to achieve your resolutions for 2019. If you do not already have, then download the You version of the bible into your phone. You may do your Bible time on your way to work. Alternatively, plan to arrive at work early to do your Quiet Time with God before the start of each work day. Be disciplined to close the day with reading a Bible passage. Choose a time and place that work for you. Do likewise for physical health, academic or work and community involvement. Above all, commit your plans to the LORD as Proverbs 3:5-6 advises us “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Have a blessed and fruitful 2019 for the LORD!