Spiritual Goals

For our last Care Group we were asked to come with our spiritual goals, hopes or desires for this year. I asked God to direct me over these past few weeks to see where He wanted to lead me and I kept hearing, "Be open. Holy hunches. Follow through, even if they're hard or uncomfortable." I thought some more about what that meant and 4 hunches immediately came to mind. Stirrings that I've felt in my heart and mind that I should follow through on. I've already followed through on 2 of these holy hunches (both of which I'm nervous and excited about) and the other 2 are a bit scarier, but I'm praying about them and want to find God's perfect timing. I read a book awhile ago (I can't remember if I mentioned it here on my blog or not) by the Director of Urban Promise where I used to work with Inner City kids in Camden, NJ and the book is called Holy Hunches ... which is where I got that from. Funny story, actually. I can't remember why, but I was in our local Christian music/books/everything store not looking for a book. I have enough Christian books that I need to get through so I didn't need to buy another book ... yet I found myself in the book section. I just felt that I was supposed to be in that section, so I perused the aisles and my eyes dropped down to the bottom shelf and I saw his name ... Bruce Main. I didn't see what the title was or anything about it, but I thought, "I've got to buy this book! I know him!!!" Little did I know that I was led to this book called Holy Hunches, by a Holy hunch! Kinda funny. I read through this book in a day and because he used examples of people I know, it meant so much more to me than I ever imagined. Great book if you need a good, easy book to read. The thing with Holy hunches is you don't know how they're going to turn out, but the point is to be obedient to the calling.

My 2nd goal for this year is to read through the Bible in a year. I've attempted this before but didn't make it. :( Right now I'm only 1 day behind, but I think announcing it here so publicly will keep me more accountable. I'll be honest and tell you that I'm not a great Bible reader. Most of the time I don't get that "Whoo Hoo!" feeling I get when I read a chapter from "Walking with God" or like when I read "Blue Like Jazz" or "The Shack." Or like when I sit and watch the woodpecker outside and the birds take a dip in the birdbath or when I hear a great worship song. Why is that? Is there something wrong with me that I don't have a huge thirst to read the Bible? I feel bad, yet I still feel that I have a pretty good relationship with God. I've never felt His love as much as I have in the past few years. I've asked God to either release me from this feeling of feeling bad or to reveal the Bible to me in a whole new way this year.

My last goal is to say this prayer every morning:

Lord, heighten my awareness of Your encouraging voice in every intricate
activity of my life.

I believe this will give me a great outlook on the day and will help me to be more aware of God's Holy hunches.