We’ve all been there, haven’t we? We started the new year determined to make a fresh start and nail that goal: Exercise daily. No more sugar. Get organized. Quit smoking. Then, a week into the new year, it happens. We mess up one day, skip the next, then decide to forget the whole plan altogether.

“It’s too hard,” we might say, or, “I’m not ready yet.”

But what if your new year’s resolution is a faith-based one, reading the Bible — something you know you need to do as a way of growing closer to God and maturing spiritually? What if you had huge plans to read the Bible every day, or read through the whole Bible in a year, and yet you already failed your Bible reading resolution. What now?

Sure, you could give up. But you know in your heart that God really wants you to push through and make reading the Bible a priority.

Here are eight practical steps to take when you’ve fallen off track so you can fulfill your Bible-reading resolution.

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Just like a person might take a bright lamp or lantern and shine it to guide their steps, aiding them so they cannot stumble and fall, God’s word serves as a light so we don’t stumble in our walk to be obedient to him and his laws.

Not only does Scripture tell us Jesus' birth was heralded by a choir of angelic beings, but when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the temple, they also encountered two prophets who praised God in a grateful display of thanksgiving. One of these prophets was a woman named Anna, one of only a handful of female prophets mentioned in the Bible. 

When Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd and us as his sheep (John 10:11, 27), this is a good thing. We want to be part of Jesus’s flock, want to know his voice and be counted in his heavenly family. Yet other references are not as positive.

Perhaps we think of a leader as someone in charge, one who commands an army or steers an organization or business to success. Perhaps we think of someone in the spotlight, with all eyes looking to them for a decision, a rallying cry, or just simple direction. Or perhaps a leader is someone who coaches and guides us, motivating and inspiring when things look bleak. 

The truth is that leaders aren’t always in charge, or even commanding or inspiring. The Bible gives us a number of examples of great leaders, people who did the right thing and inspired others to look to God and God’s way. They still inspire us today.

For example, in spite of a speech impediment, Moses led God’s people, the Israelites, out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land. The apostles Peter, John, and James — identified in Acts 4:13 as unschooled, ordinary men — led the early church after Christ’s resurrection. 

Today, we can be leaders in a number of ways: in our households, our workplaces, our communities, and our churches. The important thing is to be a godly leader, heeding God’s commends and God’s ways in all we do. These attributes apply to men as well as to women. 

Let’s dive into God’s Word to discover six things the Bible says make a great leader.

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We hear the cries in our streets and on our screens: Justice! Give us justice! Deliver justice!

It’s often a rallying cry, encouraging others to clamor for the same in the face of dreadful or truly unfair persecution or loss of life. Sometimes it’s used to incite governmental leaders and others to pass needed laws or enforce already existing regulations, while other times it seems like a plea for the world to sit up and take notice of a grievous wrong that has occurred.

Biblical justice is rooted in the perfect and always-good essence of the Lord God Almighty. We know that God is good and true, holy and righteous. He is just, the epitome of justice and all that is love and truth and goodness. Justice is often synonymous with righteousness. Those who are just and righteous are walking in God’s will and way, in alignment with the Lord and obeying his commands, not only in their actions but in their hearts. It’s a relational description of those who are in proper connection with God, who himself personifies righteousness and justice. 

When we call for justice, we’re really calling for righteousness – for the world or the situation to be set in godly order in accordance with the Lord and his perfect ways. 

We can and should pray for justice in every moment and every way, whether we are directly petitioning God for justice or simply begging that the world turn back from the wrong path and back to God’s way. God’s way, we know, is the way of his son, Jesus — “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). 

Praying for justice is a good thing, for it enables us to focus our souls on the way of the Lord and urge others to do the same. 

Every aspect of our lives is addressed in God’s word, the Holy Bible, from family strife and marital issues to lawsuits, oppression, murder, and immigration. God calls us to righteousness in all of this. 

Here, then, are six prayers for justice:

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It’s important to understand that blessings, that God’s favor, isn’t the shallow, superficial understanding many of us have of prosperity — things like money in the bank and a great marriage or career. True blessings are eternal, often far deeper that anything we can imagine.

Filled with biblical symbolism and wild, sometimes-scary imagery, the Book of Revelation can be a difficult read. It’s tough to wrap our minds around the very last book of the Bible, for both the language used and the prophetic style are different from other books in God’s Word. 

Yet it is a critical and important read for a variety of reasons.

What Is the Book of Revelation? 

The Book of Revelation is thought to have been written by the apostle John, probably around AD 95, and addressed to the seven churches in western Asia Minor — the heart of God’s church in the word at the time of its writing. It’s a book of hope, primarily using allegory and prophecy to explain a vision given to him, John, while he was on the Greek island called Patmos in the Aegean Sea.  

Its central message is to offer encouragement to Christians to stand strong against persecution and compromise in anticipation of the return of Christ.

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Imagine the beginnings the universe for a moment — out of vast nothingness, before space and time and even stars in the galaxy, the Spirit of God hovered above the surface of the waters and breathed creation into existence.

“Let there be light,” he said (Genesis 1:3).

In that moment, life for us began. He created seas and land, vegetation and fruit trees, the sun and the moon, and creatures upon the earth and in the air and water.

Earth swarmed with life, a beautiful cacophony of existence all in symbiotic, perfect relationship with him and with each other.

Then, into all of this, God spoke once more and created us, human beings. Scripture tells us God created us, male and female, in his own image — the image of God (Genesis 1:27).

When all of this was complete, God rested, noting it was “very good.”

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Numerous Scriptures drive home the point that lying is not good, nor is it godly. We know God never lies. Yet there are a few key examples in the Bible where lying — while not described as the right thing to do — produced a favorable outcome. 

A prayer of petition is simply asking for God's help. Jesus repeatedly encourages us to go to the Father and ask him earnestly for what we need. Our Heavenly Father loves us, and he hears our requests, so it is right and natural that we go to God for help. 

In essence, a doxology is a praise song, usually a very specific one that is meant to express full, unadulterated, complete, and perfect worship and adoration for the Lord God Almighty.

The tale of Samson and Delilah is far more than a sensational love story, or yet another battle between the Israelites and their heathen enemies. It’s a story of how God can use even broken, sinful, flawed men like Samson to accomplish His great and glorious purposes.

Perhaps you’ve seen it on a coffee cup or a T-shirt — the image of a godly, graceful woman along with the words “she is clothed with strength and dignity,” or “her children arise and call her blessed.” Also called the “Proverbs 31 woman” or the “wife of noble character,” she is a feminine ideal described in Proverbs 31:10-31, the epilogue of King Solomon’s much-beloved Bible book imparting wisdom. 

The full verse, which starts the epilogue section, asks, “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies” (Proverbs 31:10).

It goes on to describe numerous lofty attributes of this woman, from wise and God-fearing to enterprising and intelligent. 

But what does it really mean to be a wife of noble character? And is this an unreachable standard for women?

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