A new year is a good time to pause and take stock. What is the state of things in your walk with the Lord? What improvements can you make as we look ahead to a new year by way of your personal devotion to Him, His Word, and His Church? Please take a moment and consider these eight suggestions:
1. Choose a 2026 Bible reading plan. A great five-day-a-week plan can be downloaded at the bottom of this web page.
2. Buy copies of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) and Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) and Heidelberg Catechism!
3. If you already have them, here is an excellent commentary on the WSC from G.I. Williamson.
4. If you haven’t been coming or tuning into the Family Study series on the WCF, set a day of the week or weekend and begin. You can listen to them here.
5. Start Family Devotions or pray about ways to enhance your Family devos.
6. Have a family debrief Sunday evenings.
7. Read a chapter in Proverbs every day for each day of the month. And for anyone wanting to do a deep dive into the wisdom of Proverbs, there are excellent commentaries out there. This one has greatly blessed me.
8. Commit to keeping a prayer journal for your needs, wants, and desires, and praises and answered prayers.
Brothers and sisters, what can you plan ahead to build into your daily and weekly routines to be better disciplined and to better feed and strengthen your desire to live a faithful life of obedience flowing from a heart of gratitude? (Maybe it begins with a prayer of repentance and asking our Heavenly Father to give you that desire! He will if you ask!)
Here’s a key word: sustainability. You may want to aim for the fences, but base hits count! One step at a time. Little bites at first.
A exhortation to husbands: This is one of your main jobs in the home. Your wife is there to help you, but she’s not the leader in this — you are. If you’re a husband and a father, you have got to know sound doctrine and exercise godly wisdom (and patience and kindness) and these are the tools that will help get you there.
Mark my words: we will stand before the Almighty to give an account, so take heed. If you need to, repent and ask for help in leading your family.
Loving you all in Christ as we head into the next year of our Lord, 2026!
Photo by Danil Aksenov on Unsplash