Keeping your resolutions

Details: Published: Wednesday, 23 March 2016 02:27; Written by James Dean

Welcome to 2016! A new year often means making new resolutions - so how are they going?

On Sunday as we looked at Romans 3, I asked if anyone had made any New Year's resolutions. A few had and one of those mentioned was a resolution to start a Bible reading plan, which is a fantastic thing to do. We reminded ourselves though that we can't make ourselves any more acceptable to God by "doing things better". Jesus has already done EVERYTHING for us on the cross and through His resurrection - He is our righteousness!

But that doesn't mean we should just sit back because as Christians we've also been called to a life of godliness and holiness (1 Peter 1:14-16, 2 Peter 3:11) and that will take time and effort... all in His strength, of course.

Over the years I'm sure that many of us have started to read our Bibles end to end with great enthusiasm only to get bogged down in some of the tougher books like Leviticus and Numbers. If you're determined to do this let me suggest you try a Bible overview first. This will give you the basic framework of the Bible; you can then fill in the gaps afterwards. For example, here's the overview of the New Testament:

The Gospel of Luke (the life of Jesus)
Acts (the early church)
Ephesians (an introduction to the teaching of Paul)
1 Corinthians (life in the church)
1 Peter (an introduction to Peter)
1 Timothy (an introduction to the Pastoral Epistles)
Hebrews (Christology)
Romans (Paul’s theology)

If you're looking for a good reading plan there are many out there. Take a look at this list and find one that suits you: Bible reading plans.

Don't keep what you're reading to yourself - we're in this together so share what you're reading, what you've learnt, what God has shown you (more on how we can do this below).

Let's do all we can to encourage one another to live lives that glorify our God this year.