A new year, New Resolutions

I'm not really big on New Years Resolutions. Especially b/c that way if I don't keep up with the Res. then I know I haven't failed. LOL I'm not one to finish too much of things I started. I start crafts and usually don't complete them, I start a diet and I quit part way through, I plan on reading so many book in a year, but then I only get a bit of a way through that. I promised I would read the Bible completely through in a year and fail in the time frame.
This year I'm trying to set goal that I may accomplish. I still want to finish reading the Bible to its end, I still want to lose weight, I still want to read books(just not setting a number on what I want to read). I do want to keep on the main frame of reading spiritual uplifting books. I'm totally enjoying the learning of it all.
One huge goal on concentrating on is, I want to become closer to my Father in heaven then I have ever been. I want the father/daughter relationship like none other. I want the feeling of sitting on "daddy's lap" kind of relationship. So I have made it known that I'm looking for books that will and can get me spiritually intune with the spirit to guide me there.
As far as the weight loss. I took on the challange that we were given at church, of a 21 day fast. You are to chose something that you want to abstain from for 3 weeks and pray about it.. So I took on the challange of abstaining from midnight chocolate. I've stocked my draws with rice cakes, wheat thins and veggy crackers, so I won't be tempted. I've been so good about it that I've actually abstained from chocolate and sweets from my day time also. The true thing of sugar really that I've had is only in my coffee (2 tsp) The only chocolate I've gotten is white chocolate coffee creamer. I'm so proud of myself..
We are then to pick someone in Crestview to pray for salvation. I took on the task of two. B/c I knew that they are such a close knit couple that they would have to come together to be saved, instead of seperately.
It all follows suit to these ideas on how to do it..



He gave us 6 keys for setting yourself up for success....
1)set your prayer objectives. Write them down! Trust God! Declare your dependence on him and make him first. Ask him to point out the areas of your life that is unpleasant to him. Believe God for the great fulfillment of Crestview winning the lost!
James 4:2-3
2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
2) decide what type of fasting you will do
Matthew 6:16-18
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it.

Footnotes:a.Matthew 16:18 The Greek word for Peter means rock.
b.Matthew 16:18 That is, the realm of the dead
3) make it a heart thing not a food thing
Joel 2:12-13
Rend Your Heart
12 “Even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
4) put to death the flesh. Fasting separates us from things of the flesh. The goal of Christianity is that the spirit man be in charge fasting and prayer denies the flesh and the souless man but strengthens the spirit man
Romans 8:13
13 For if you live according to the flesh, 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
5) choose a different lifestyle don't do the same things you've always done. Change it up!
Isaiah 58:3
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

6) expect results! Expect changes
Isaiah 58:8-9
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
(8) the rightous one
It's one thing to love God and another to be In Love with God! So are you in love with God?
Revelations 2:4-6
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Remember your first love, remove the obsticals (repent)
God commands to bring us back to him!
1) remember your first love
2) remove the obsticals
3) rejoin the path of obedience



So all in all, everything I wanted was taught in that Sunday. How awesome is that? How to get closer to the Father is in alot of what is written above. So I have taken on this challenge. Sunday past, it was taught also in making God first you must put Him first. When you wake in the morning, don't roll over and turn on TV or hit your facebook, as I do. I roll over and grab my phone and see if I have any texts or messages. Then, of course, I must click on FB and look and see all the newness of the day. NO, we must thank our Father for being able to open our eyes another day and ask our blessings and give thanks in advance for our needs. Pick up your Bible and read for a few moments before you begin your day.. This is very difficult for me..I'm still trying to adjust this. I check phone, then go bathroom, then give thanks to our Father. I leave my reading for later in the day or even just before bed at night. Maybe if I read before I started my day and also before I actually end my day. I may just get the closeness that I'm desiring..
Anyway, try it. It is a promise from our Father in Heaven that if you ask you will receive. He does tell us, "I never said it would be easy, just that it would be worth it." (may not be verbatum) I was told while growing up, if you wished to speak to God, you must pray. If you want God to speak to you, you must read the Bible. But there actually comes a time while working toward all this, that you can spiritually speak to the Father in a back and fort conversation. That is the conversation I am aiming toward in getting.. How about you???
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