Can We Find Salvation in a Yearly Planner?

Can we find salvation from a yearly planner?

Of course, my answer is no but you wouldn’t think that if you saw the effort that I put in each November choosing a new one and setting it up.

How about a daily devotional? Is there a particularly blessed 365-day devotional reader that will transform my life and make me like Jesus by March?

I haven’t found one yet, but I begin every year with a new one in hand and a heart full of hope.

In an age of short-cuts and hacks, I still believe in taking the long way.

I still trust that it’s a lifetime of following Jesus over many, many new years, discarded planners, and devotionals abandoned by May that matters.

Eugene Peterson called it “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.” That’s an entire discipleship program packed into a title.

Hope springs eternal, they say, so since November, I’ve been reflecting on 2022 and considering changes, goals, and disciplines for 2023.

Then, a Facebook memory popped up from 2019. It included this photo

with the caption, “Praying and planning for writing, speaking, and life in 2020.”

The memory was sobering in one aspect, but it also made me laugh. God reminding me that there is so much about the coming year I can neither imagine nor control.

He underlined it for me today when I read this verse:

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

I had a plan for this week, and it was already in motion on Monday when my carpenter husband dashed into the house announcing he needed a ride to the emergency room.

Just like that, the week (and probably the next several weeks) changed to accommodate injuries to his left hand from a table saw.

In the end, all will be well, and the surgeon has hope he’ll have some use of his thumb and index finger, but between now and then there are procedures, pain, lost work, waiting, and a big detour in our routines and plans.

I still believe in making plans.

I still prayerfully choose a daily devotional (or three, because I’m like that).

I still prayerfully set my intentions for 2023.

I create a routine that supports spiritual disciplines.

But, now into my sixth decade following Jesus, my hopes and faith are not in planners, routines, or disciplines, but in the person of Jesus Christ.

He is the road I walk, the Way I follow, the path my feet seek each day. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

And that factors into my primary focus for each new year.

What habits, practices, routines, or objectives will keep my heart, mind, soul, and body walking in the steps of Jesus?

Of course, I create goals for ministry, health, business, writing, and continuing education.

But my primary intentions are toward Jesus. Because come what may, He is my life.

Here’s what they include this year:

• Between Luke and Acts there are 52 chapters. That’s ideal for one chapter a week of in-depth study, meditation, and possibly some memorization.

These books, for me, encourage certainty of Jesus, boldness of faith, and humility in the face of trials.

To face our times; Christians must cultivate humble certainty that leads to a Spirit-inspired authentic boldness springing not from arrogance but from Christ-centered confidence and from seeing what is unseen.

• Proverbs has 31 chapters. Many Christians read one chapter of Proverbs a day each month and I began this practice recently. I’ll continue it in 2023.

We live in times full of folly. Grounding in wisdom is essential.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 16-18

• And so, this year, I have a prayer plan. It is a plan in my calendar full of people, projects, and nations God has placed on my heart for prayer. It is also full of Scripture about prayer to sustain my faith in talking with God.
• My husband and I plan to read the same daily devotional (The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge) as well as The One Year Bible

This is a new endeavor for us. A new marriage challenge. It’s never too late to try new things.

• Finally, this year, I am determined to lean into the hard questions. To face fears instead of brushing them aside or trying to smother them with a pillow.

To look what I don’t know and don’t understand square in the face with faith that Jesus is with me.

Life is too short, God is too great, and there is too much at stake for those who don’t know Him for Christians to live with fearful, muddled thinking

Or to spiritually “shelter in place” instead of leaning into every opportunity for training and growth.

Additionally, I’m committed to my local church, weekly worship, small group Bible study, giving, and service. At one time, I was tempted to “monk-it-out” and create a life that included only “God and me.”

But that’s not His design for us. Other people make me more like Him.

On my own, I can come under the deception that I’ve got it all together. It’s in interacting with others that God shows me how far I have to grow.

It’s in community I see His Word lived out, His comfort and joy made flesh, and His grace delivered and received.

It’s in the Body of Christ I gain a fuller view of Him.

How about you?

What’s in your planner? What’s on your heart? What’s built into your life to remain walking closely with Jesus in 2023?

What is your prayer for the coming year—come what may?

My prayer for you is that you will be certain of what you’ve been taught in Christ. That you will know His joy even in suffering, His boldness even in persecution, His grace in weakness, His power in daily living, and His fullness in the community of faith.

But especially: “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:16-21 esv

Will there be salvation in a new planner? A 365-day devotional? Maybe not. https://t.co/5ZFqMhU6lE #NewYearsResolutions #amwriting

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 16, 2022