Category #1: Spirit
Now that the dust has settled from the Holidays. You’ve cleaned up the mess and maybe taken down the tree. Now could be the perfect time to pull out your New Year Examen and fill in the most important category.
Saturday mornings are different. My hubby’s home for the weekend. We like to have our quiet time differently. I like to slip out of the bedroom to the guest room with my Bible and journal. He likes to prop himself up in bed with his laptop, listen to worship music, or watch sermons on YouTube.
One weekend after we’d both had an hour or so for ourselves, he strode out, laptop in hand, as I was starting breakfast. He had come across a sermon by Benny Hinn. A televangelist from 20 years ago, who had a dynamic, worldwide healing ministry and written the New York Times bestseller Good Morning, Holy Spirit.
Like most ministries that grow like wildfire, it hadn’t ended well. Amidst the things God was doing through the ministry, people started swarming; seeking signs and wonders more than they were seeking the God who orchestrates them. It turned into a frenzy and Benny’s life and ministry went up in a puff of smoke.
We hadn’t seen or heard anything from him in a long time. But YouTube had plopped a recent sermon in Bryan’s feed that he wanted to share with me.
We were both a little wary but as we fried eggs, buttered our toast, and listened, it was powerful. Since his downfall, Benny had been humbled, reunited with his wife, and come back to a simple, genuine life with God.
After all he had gone through and almost 60 years of walking with God, he said he had two disciplines that he practiced every year. One, to read through the Bible three times, and two, to read Foxe’s Book of Christian Martyrs.
It struck my heart like an arrow hitting the bullseye. Getting close to the New Year, I’d been praying that God would show me what his unique plan was for me to grow spiritually in the year ahead. I’d been listening and watching.
I’ve been a Christian for a long time. There are years when I’ve been in deep-dive bible studies, taking in a lot of scripture, others where I've read just a few verses at a time and spent more time in prayer, or studied a hero of the faith. During my spiritual direction training much of my daily time with God centered around learning about the history of Christianity and practices of drawing close to Christ and one year I spent much of my early morning time on my knees on the deck opening myself to God in silent prayer.
With the endless facets of God, it just makes sense that our relationship with him would change from year to year as we follow the twists and turns of the adventure of knowing him.
When I heard Benny Hinn say that he reads the Bible in a year and Foxe’s book of Christian Martyrs, my spirit, said, “That’s it. That’s what God has for me!” Benny said he read it three times. I didn’t feel any draw to that. But to read it once and to read the Book of Martyrs, which I’ve known about forever but never read. Being in the final stages of writing my book about the heroes of the faith, no telling what God might impart as I read it.
On the New Year Examen, there’s no more important category than “Spirit”, the first. Not my work, relationships, or my health. As I make the leading in my Spiritual life my first priority the rest of the categories will overflow from that.
Now what did I need to do to be faithful to do it?
First, I remembered we had a copy of a Bible in a Year. I needed to see if I could find it.
Second, there is more than one type of Bible in a Year. I needed to spend time researching and see which one the spirit was drawing me to. I needed to get whatever version I was going to use, in the house and ready to use starting January 1st.
Third, I wanted to mention it to my husband and see if he wanted to do it too.
Fourth, foresee the challenges. It would be more Bible reading than I was used to. What about the days when I had to rush out of the door quicker and didn’t have as much time to read? Were there any phone apps out there that read the passages aloud that I could listen to on my commute? And with all the Bible in a Year versions out there could I find an app that followed the same version I was drawn to?
So, I got to work!
Step 1: Going to our big bookcase, with two sections from waist height to the ceiling on both sides of the fireplace, looking carefully I found our copy! It was a translation I liked and followed the format I was drawn to.
Step 2 One night when I couldn’t sleep (thank you menopause), I flipped through apps on my phone, turns out there are a plethora of Bible-in-a-Year apps! Trying out a few, I found the perfect one! It followed the same format, read the same passages, and had both audio and written forms of each day’s readings.
Step 3: I ordered a copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
Done!
Oh Lord, you are faithful. I’m 12 days in, with 353 to go, receiving so much revelation and connection with God, and loving it!
The root of the word disciple is the same as discipline. Being a follower of Jesus takes focus, intention, and action. Reading, Genesis, in my Bible-in-a-Year, about Abraham and the promise and instruction God gave him, the effort he went to make sure he obeyed struck me. He had to use every bit of determination and grit to stick to it. Even when he was an old man, knowing he was about to die, he made his servant promise that he would never take his son back to their old homeland because this was the place where the Lord’s promise would be fulfilled. He made arrangements for how to stay faithful even after his death!
God has so much for us if we will set our hearts on him and do whatever it takes to follow.
I think the only tears in heaven will be tears of regret, when the life he wanted us to have if we would have kept him as the center, flashes before our eyes,
But our story is not done yet! We have today, and 2024!
Ask the Lord what he has for you in the New Year. Listen and fill in Category #1.
Then if you’re ready for an even greater blessing share it with me or someone you’re close to. We can check in with each other and stay on course.
~ Lori