A New Plan

 I love this time of year!!  I love new beginnings, new projects and new goals.  Each year I re-evaluate many areas of my life, including my devotion time.  I want to make sure that I'm learning and growing and keeping my eyes on Jesus.  I'm excited about what the Lord is teaching me already!

I have many goals for my devotion time and there are a few things I will switch up.  But, first, let me tell you how my time typically goes.  This is the most precious time of my day where I get up early.  I make a nice, warm cup of coffee. (while it's brewing I fold a quick load of laundry from the dryer that I had put in the night before.  It's always my goal to fold the load by the time my coffee is done.) Then, I turn on my little lamp at my desk.  Some days I have other spots I go to such as my blue chair or our porch swing.  But, for the most part, I enjoy having my devotions at my desk where I know my Bible and prayer list are, as well as my pens and highlighters and notebooks.  Then, I turn on soft piano music.  It's still dark outside and I can hear the rooster crowing to start his day, too.  I love this time of the morning!

Usually, I first pull out my prayer journal.  On the first page I have Psalm 5:3  "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD;  in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up."  I want to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus throughout my day, so it's important for me to be reminded of this, and to pray and ask the Lord to help me in my day.  I focus on the blessings God has given me.  Last year I tried to write down at least one blessing a week.  On New Years Eve I read those to my family.  It was so neat to look back on how good God had been to our family!  Then, it's time to make sure my heart is right before God.    I pray Psalm 139:23-24, Psalm 32:5 and Psalm 38:18.  When I ask God to search my heart, it's amazing what He reveals. My heart is desperately wicked.  I am so thankful for a heavenly Father that is so ready to forgive.  He's so merciful!  Confess and Forsake is a vital aspect of prayer time.

  I then go through and pray for me, my family, my church family, for our needs, and for our desires.  I have a prayer list where I date when I ask God for something.  Then, when He answers, I date it and highlight it.  It's amazing how much pink, yellow, green and blue highlights there are in my journal!! He's a prayer answering God!

After my prayer time, I get to open God's Word.  What a treasure!!  There are christians throughout the ages that gave their lives for just one page.  I have the whole Bible, and many copies of them!  I don't want to take that for granted.

A few months ago I prayed  and asked God how He wanted me to read His Word in 2023.  Last year I did a great plan where I read my Bible through topically.  I loved that plan! As I was praying, Patrick began preaching a message from Psalm 119 on "What good is the Word of God"  and "How to study God's Word."  Wow!  It has been so good!! You can find those messages here:   So I decided to implement something new into my Bible time for 2023.  One of the things I am doing is a book study.  I want to take each book of the Bible and study it out and create a reference for myself on the overview of each book of the Bible.  Each book will have one page where I write down who the author is, when it was written and to whom.  I will write down the theme and the prophecies of the coming Christ in the book.  Then, I will write down my favorite verses and stories in that book. I also decided to write down everytime Christ appears.  It's amazing to see our Preincarnate Christ show up on the very first page and continue throughout.  As I've written down everytime Jesus (LORD) is there, it's amazing!  It's amazing what HE created, what HE said, what hope HE offered.....and I'm only in Genesis!!

I am so excited for this year.  My plan is to draw closer to Christ and fall more and more in love with Him.  What is your plan?