"A New Year And A New Series"

January 04, 2023 | By Chuck

     With the beginning of a new year comes renewed motivation to make improvements to one’s life. The new year seems to be the popular and perfect time to start fresh if it's exercise, diet, home improvements, or career changes. The new year is also a great time to start good spiritual habits. Spiritual growth should be a priority for every Christian. The thing about spiritual growth is that it doesn’t just happen automatically. Spiritual growth requires effort focused on the right actions. What are the right actions that lead to spiritual growth?

            We will begin this new year with a new sermon series on spiritual disciplines. The spiritual disciplines we will discuss are the very actions that we should practice in our daily walk with the Lord. The practice of these specific spiritual disciplines will bring about personal spiritual growth. This is exciting as we begin to consider the things that will lead us closer to the Lord. But we must understand that the practice of these spiritual disciplines will require personal discipline. We can talk all day about our plans and goals for the new year, but nothing will change if we don’t have the discipline to make those things happen. We must be disciplined to see these things through if it’s physical changes like exercise or diet or practicing spiritual habits.

            Let’s make it a point to put into practice the spiritual disciplines we will learn about in this sermon series. May we learn to train ourselves to practice spiritual disciplines that will lead to godliness. “Rather train yourself for godliness” (I Tim. 4:7b).