{2024 Goals} Part 1 – Spiritual Growth

It’s that time of year: time to review old goals, and roll out the new goals for 2024. Last year I completed 48% of my goals, which is a failure if I go by school grading standards, but is a win if I count it as 48% better than if I didn’t set goals. I think I’ll count them that way. 🙂

But I did learn that the goals that are more habit-based are hard for me because if I forget to mark down the habit, by the end of the week I have forgotten if I did it, and then get all discouraged because I didn’t keep track and they’re all messed up by January 14th. So I’m rethinking how I do that. If it is a habit, then I need a habit tracker, and if I do a habit tracker, I’d need to add it to part of my evening routine, which I actually need to build a habit of consistently doing my evening routine. So, there’s that…

Anyway, last week I watched a great video over at Redeeming Productvity on goals. I’m working off of his free workbook this year’s goals. He suggests setting goals in the following areas of stewardship: Spiritual, Relationships, Career\Calling, Health, Finances, and Recreation. (I also added an area for myself: mental growth–education, reading, memory).

So I thought I’d start this series for 2024 with what I’m doing for each category and why. Today, I’ll focus on goals for spiritual growth.

2024 Spiritual Goals

1. Read through the New Testament in 6 months, M-F
2. Weekends: Study in the Psalms/Self-Examination
3. Continue reading through and memorizing Colossians

Breakdown

1. Read through the New Testament in 6 months, M-F
   For this year I’m going to focus on reading through just the New Testament slowly, and possibly twice. For the last few years, I’ve read through the entire Bible, and this year, with where I am in ministry, I feel that I will really benefit from a slow reading of New Testament books. I’m praying that this will help better equip me to benefit those I minister to (currently young adults) about who God is, what Jesus has accomplished for us, what the Holy Spirit does in our lives, what sin is and does, and how Christians are called to live.
   I created a New Testament reading plan to accommodate reading Monday through Friday, which frees up the weekends for catching up and/or working through Psalms and Self-Examination. If you’d like a copy, you can download and print it here.
   
2. Saturday: Study in the Psalms
   On Saturdays I’ll work slowly through the I Will Meditate Journal on Psalms 1-89. I’m not pushing myself to get through the entire journal in the year, but instead to engage with each Psalm taking as much time as I like.
   Sunday: Self-examination
   As I’ve been typing the Susan Allibone memoir, I’ve seen self-examination mentioned so many times as a crucial aspect of her growth in grace and sanctification. I’ve been collecting self-examination questions for a while, and I will be working through some of them on the weekend. Sometimes I’ll work through those, and sometimes I will be journaling through verses that are particularly convicting as I come to them in my reading and examining my thoughts, actions, and behaviors in light of those. I’ll share more of this as the year goes on, but if you’d like a place to start, here’s a great set of questions by John Wesley to print off and journal through one or two at a time.
   A crucial part of self-examination that we often overlook, however, is to be sure that after we’ve spent time looking at ourselves, we finish by looking to Christ in prayer and especially thanksgiving. If you end self-examination feeling terrible about yourself and focusing on yourself to try harder to be better, you’re doing it wrong. It should always end with Christ. What He has done, what He promises He will do, and what He is doing now.
   
3. Continue reading through and memorizing Colossians.
   My husband and I were challenged by friends to memorize the entire book of Colossians. We haven’t got there yet, but we’ve read it through, in its entirety, out loud over 70 times now. We’re using this method of Bible memorization by Dr. John G. Mitchell.
   It’s funny, because you’d think after reading it through that many times, that we’d be so BORED. But we’re STILL seeing things we missed before! I feel like I’m just now getting the flow of the book, and I’m surprised at how fast we come to the end each time. It’s like a good friend at this point. I guess we should move on to stage 2 of this method in January.

That’s it for my spiritual goals. I’ll move on to the next category in the next blog post. Share any of your spiritual goals for 2024 in the comments! I know it helps others plan and strategize to see what others are doing!

(P.S. Don’t forget to print your free reading plan and self examination questions below!)