New Year's Helps

I came across a few items from the blogs of Tim Challies and John Piper (can click on each name or look at my side bar if you want to see the original posts) that I thought I would pass along to you.

Tim Challies posts from Justin Taylor's blog on helpful Bible reading plans for a year. I am going to try to use The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. This will assist me if I start to get behind, as I often do with Bible readings and get frustrated and give up, this plan gives 5-6 "catch up days". John Piper also posted on fasting and praying through scripture.

This morning I read from Psalms 90 and 91 (have not started the Bible reading plan yet, read before I checked on my favorite blogs). Psalm 90:12 struck out to me and I prayed and pondered through this verse. The verse says,

"So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom".

This Psalm is a prayer written by Moses to God and the verses prior speak of God's anger and His fury on how His children don't live in light of Him. This verse starts out with the tiny little word SO, which means, with all that has just been said be very mindful of this. . . We are to number each of our days, to value each of them, make each of them count, make the most of each day.

Moses continues with his So. . . That. The key here is THAT we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom. We may only present to Him a heart of wisdom if we make the most of our days. One way we gain wisdom is by living our lives to the fullest to His glory.

For 2009, I want to number my days that I might be able to give back to Him a heart of wisdom.

Happy New Year to all of you. When I look back a year from now, my prayer is that I lived out some of what is on my heart now and I will only be able to do that by personal discipline and God's abundant grace.