Captains Slog.. Stuart Read

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CAPTAINS SLOG: Stardate Dec 30th, 2009 - Happy New Year

One of the great things about living in Korea is that you get to celebrate New Year twice: “Solar” New Year on Jan 1st and “Lunar” New Year on Feb 17th (this year). This means you can make New Year’s resolutions on Jan 1st and if you break them, you get a second chance a month or so later!

Among my New Year’s Resolutions this year are:

Exercise and get fit
Eat less pizza
Spend more time with Jung Hwa
But mostly to exercise and get fit!

So it did occur to me that if I let God make my resolutions, they might be a bit different. Not that He would disagree with any of the above I’m sure, but I wonder whether he might actually want a bit more for me than that. What would his priorities be for me in 2010?

Because at the end of the day, New Year’s resolutions are really just dumbed-down prayer targets. And if these were my only prayer targets for 2010, I wouldn’t be setting my sights very high, would I? of course, I need to sit down before God and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to me what His priorities are for me, but off the top of my head, I could say…

To increase in my love and knowledge of God
To be a more faithful steward of my money, time and gifts
To be a more loving and considerate husband, father, brother and son
To be bold in my witness to the Gospel at work and on the streets of Incheon
To pray daily for the needs and growth of our church
To pray weekly (if not daily) for the work of missionaries and the needs of the persecuted church

Oh, and to exercise and get fit!

And the best thing about calling them prayer targets rather than New Year’s resolutions, is that you can ask others to pray with you. I’d be happy if you would!

Stuart Read, 12/01/2010