Salvation Summaries

Do you make New Year’s resolutions?  Or maybe a better question is, “Do you keep (or achieve) your New Year’s resolutions?”

Each year, I typically have a few fitness or spiritual goals I want to accomplish, though I don’t necessarily make or start these on January 1.  One goal last year, which I started in August or September, was to read through the Bible in a year, and I accomplished it.

For 2019, I decided to make two formal resolutions and am “announcing” them to all for my own accountability.  Before I reveal what they are, I thought it would be helpful to refresh our (or my) understanding of what a resolution is.

According to Wordnik, resolution means:

• firm determination (firmness of purpose),
• a resolving (to make a firm decision) to do something or
• a course of action determined or decided on.

Thus, a good summary for resolution is:

A firm determination to do something that includes a course of action.

OK, on to my two New Year’s resolutions…

1. Memorize 1 Peter

How many Bible verses, excluding John 3:16, have you memorized and can recite today?  A half dozen?  A couple?  One?

A few years ago, I printed a dozen verses from the Psalms, Proverbs and some NT books, and memorized several during my daily walks on a trail in our subdivision.  However, I remembered them for only a few months, and can’t recite them now.  As a Christian for more than 30 years, I only know a few verses from heart, and that’s clearly not good enough.

My motivation for memorizing more verses came from recently learning that some Muslims memorize (or know very well) the entire Qur’an!  Per the Introduction section in my English version of the Qur’an, “Muslim children start to learn portions of the Qur’an by heart in their normal schooling: the tradition of learning the entire Qur’an by heart started during the lifetime of the Prophet and continues to the present day. A person attaining this distinction becomes known as a hafiz, and this is still a prerequisite for admission to certain religious schools in Muslim countries.”

Now, some of you may be asking, “That sounds impressive, but how long is the Qur’an?”  It’s 440 pages.  Memorizing the Qur’an would be equivalent to a Christian memorizing the following books in the New Testament of the Bible:

Mark, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation.

In other words, it would be the same as memorizing one of the four gospel books and the rest of the (entire) New Testament!

Folks (Christians), that really puts us to shame, doesn’t it?  We have the most amazing religious book on this earth…one that is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16), and one that can even judge the thoughts and attitudes of one’s heart (Heb 4:12)…but we have memorized only a few verses in it.  Why? Well, the obvious reasons are laziness, apathy and lack of a desire to grow spiritually.  I know these sound harsh – and I don’t like having to say them – but they are true are they not?

I told our three kids that I wanted to memorize one book of the Bible, and asked them to pick one and include their rationale for it.  By majority vote, the selection was 1 Peter (due in large part to its relatively short length, though 1 and 2 Peter happen to be some of my favorite books in the New Testament).  This book includes 5 chapters and 105 verses over 5 pages.  To memorize 1 Peter, I simply need to learn one new verse every three days or so (this is my course of action).  At the end of 2019, I’ll let you know how well I did.

As for you, dear reader, I challenge you to make a 2019 resolution to memorize part of the Bible. It can be a few verses, a few chapters or even a few books.  Whatever it may be, place it in your long-term memory “bank” so you will be able to recall and recite it a year or two from now, or when the need may arise.

2. Learn How to Pray Well

This resolution may seem odd, given that I’ve been a Christian for many years, but just because you are a Christian does not mean that you can pray well.  I’m living proof of that!

I’ve long admired how my wife’s dad, a retired pastor, prays. Words simply roll off his tongue, as if he’s casually talking to an old friend (maybe he is).  I, on the other hand, have to quickly think of (“what in world am I going to say?”) something that “sounds good”, and then say it with the hope that I do not sound too nervous (being an introvert).  That’s no way to pray, and I’m tired of being in this situation. I want to know what the Bible says about how to pray, and I want to pray as effectively as possible so that my prayers are likely to be answered in a way that I expect them to be answered.

For example, at a recent Christmas gathering of my family and my wife’s 15 relatives, I was asked to pray before one of the meals.  I had not expected to do this, since both my wife’s dad and her brother in-law are pastors, but with 10 seconds notice, the request came.  What did I say?  Here’s my best recollection of the prayer I said:

Our Father, we thank you for the opportunity that we can gather together as family and relatives.  Thank you for this food we are about to eat.  We ask that the service (the church service the next morning) tomorrow goes well, and that we learn from it.  We ask that you place a hedge of protection around those who will be traveling tomorrow.  Also, we ask that you help us, each day, to pray to you, read about you, and seek to know you better. Amen.

Now, I don’t think it’s a bad prayer, but from having subsequently studied only a few pages in one of the prayer books below, I already can see that it’s not a good prayer either, for there is no acknowledgement of who I’m really praying to (e.g., His attributes) other than the word “Father’.  When I have finished my study of books on prayer, I’ll come back to this prayer, critique it and hopefully offer a better prayer that can be said in situations like this.

So, here is my 2019 resolution on praying: I plan to review every verse in the Bible that mentions the word prayer or a derivative of it (there are more than 300 verses with the word pray, prays, praying, prayed or prayer), and other verses that relate to praying or even represent prayers, but don’t use the word pray, etc. (such as the Psalms).  I also plan to read the following eight books (most of which are small) on prayer that I borrowed from the large library of this retired pastor.

• Touching Heaven by Prayer (N.I. Saloff-Astakhoff)
• Dialogue with God (Guy Appere)
• Prayer: Conversing with God (Rosalind Rinker)
• How to Pray (R.A. Torrey)
• Prayer (O. Hallesby)
• The Practice of Prayer (G. Campbell Morgan)
• Love on its Knees (Dick Eastman), and
• Prayer: Asking and Receiving (John Rice).

In addition, and time allowing, I hope to also review the following books (from my little library) on prayer:

• Make Your Voice Heard in Heaven (Barry Black)
• Experiencing Prayer with Jesus (Blackaby)
• Face to Face Volume Two (Kenneth Boa)
• The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds
• The Circle Maker (Mark Batterson)

By the end of 2019, I want to have written a number of posts on how to pray, and become much more comfortable in praying alone and in front of others.  I hope these posts will benefit your praying too.

Wishing you a successful 2019!