This is the time of year for New Year’s resolutions.
While personal improvement is always a good thing, one of the goals of GSB is to help people become better Kingdom citizens.
Each of the five habits listed below will help make a believer a more productive member of the kingdom of God.
Here are the five habits, in no particular order:
1. Spend time daily with the Lord. Without spending time daily in prayer and reading the Bible there is no success in the kingdom of God. Make this the year it becomes a habit in your life. If you don’t know how to start, read this post.
2. Become a scheduled TV watcher. You come home from work and without thinking turn on the television. Four hours later it’s time to go to bed and you are still in front of the TV. You’ve wasted the evening. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months and months and years into a life wasted in front of the TV. Instead of wasting your life in front of the TV, this year plan what you will watch at the beginning of the week. When you’ve finished watching that show, turn off the TV and do something else. As I’ve explained here before, successful people watch very little TV. It’s the biggest time waster there is.
3. Become a reader. Use the time you save from mindless time in front of the TV. Read. Leadership is key to the kingdom of God. Leaders are readers. Here are some tips on how to read more.
4. Exercise consistently. Longer lifespans is one of the blessings of the progressing kingdom of God. (Isaiah 65:20). Do your part. The longer you live, the more time you have to advance the Kingdom.
5. Be a blessing. Non-Christians are making New Year’s resolutions designed to help them be successful. Focus on being a blessing to others and you will be a success in the Kingdom, and probably among the non-Christians as well.
If you are not doing any of these things, you will need to pray about where to start. For some the key will be cutting out much of the TV watching to free up the time to do the other things. For others the key will be establishing the daily time with the Lord first to find the discipline to do the others.
Here’s to a becoming a better Kingdom citizen in 2013. GS