A New Year’s Resolution for me this year as I start to blog again after a few months away from it is to make sure that when I first read and write about scripture is to first reflect upon how it applies to me. Sometimes last year I tried to remove specks when there was a plank in my own eye.
It occurs to me that when I read scripture with the intent of pointing out the faults of an individual, group, nation or organization, I forfeit Holy Spirit guidance. I believe that if I am praying to be guided and challenged by the Holy Spirit, what I read in scripture is first designed to transform me into the man God wants me to be. After God makes me into whom I am to be, he will then use me to help those around me.
Too frequently I have been obsessed with external performance and practices when I think perhaps God was most interested in changing me from the inside out. So from now on, my New Year’s Resolutions will be transformational.
Questions
- Is my New Year’s Resolution transformational or external?
- When I first read a scripture do I think of how it applies to me or do I think of someone else who needs to apply it?
- Is prayer and Bible study designed to transform me or is it designed for me to use to change the world?
- How can I best touch the people around me for Christ: by becoming more like him or by telling others they need to be more like him?
Passage for Meditation
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? Matthew 7:3-4
Prayer
Father as I reflect upon your word help me first to consider what it teaches me and what I need to learn from it. If I am led to share it with others, help me do so in a way that points to you and is about you and not about my own convenience, comfort, or pride.
