31 QUESTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR

When we started out 2016 twelve months ago, we could not possibly have foreseen what God had in store for us. For example, I had no idea at the beginning of the year that at some point I’d be sitting down with all of you for a McDonald’s feast to celebrate my 10th anniversary! It was a wonderful day that I’ll always cherish. There were many surprises in 2016…some good and welcome and some difficult and troubling.

And now a brand new year looms before us. There will no doubt be more surprises and probably some disappointments too. But there’s one thing we can be sure of…the God who has guided us in the past and directed our steps, will offer to do the same in the New Year. So now, as we look to the future—unknown to us but not to God—we have the confidence that he who is “our Help in ages past” is also “our Hope for years to come.”

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up and get our bearings. Recently I came across a list of 31 questions to ask ourselves at the beginning of a new year. I found them helpful and hope you will too. Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month. Here they are:

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 10 years? In eternity?

11. What’s the most important decision you need to make this year?

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 this year?

14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?

15. Who do you most want to encourage this year?

16. What is your most important financial goal this year, 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 this year?

18. What’s one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?

19. What’s one thing you could do this year 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 this year?

21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?

22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?

23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?

24. What’s the most important trip you want to take this year?

25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?

26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?

27. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?

28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, 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 this year?

31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?

I firmly believe that reflecting on these 31 questions can improve our lives and the lives of those around us. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year, you will be more likely to 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, cell phone, calendar, bulletin board, etc. – where you can review them more frequently than once a year. So let’s begin the new year by looking within and asking some challenging questions…questions and thoughtful answers that will ultimately help us to remember our dependence on our King who said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Happy New Year!

Pastor George Hawthorne