With the new year just around the corner, what new years’ resolutions do you have? What do you want your 2024 to look like?

Do you want to get healthier? Read more? Write a book? Get a new job? Maybe learn a new language? 

Or you might decide to invest in some skills and hobbies you already have. Continue working on yourself and improving.

A really good one, and one I have for myself, is to continue getting to know God more personally.

This is an ongoing resolution. 

A few years ago, I decided (or more accurately, God put the idea in my head) to get to know Him better. I’ve been a Christian since I was little but I realized I didn’t really have that much of a relationship with Him now that I had grown up and I didn’t like that.

I asked Him where to start and He led me to Genesis. What better place to start than the beginning? I didn’t have anywhere else in mind. I wasn’t looking forward to it though. I knew all those stories already.

Adam and Eve in the garden. Abraham and Sarah and Isaac. And then into Exodus with Moses and the Israelites. 

But going back to it as an adult with the intention to actually get to know the God who did the creating? That was good. That was really good. God reveals a lot about Himself in Genesis that I never noticed before.

I didn’t realize just how much you can see of God’s hand in those early books. How clearly you can see His love and His power. He creates the whole world by speaking. And what’s created when God speaks is always good. 

I started recording the things I could see about God in those verses. 

He’s organized. He’s powerful. He’s sovereign. He’s eternal, creative, good. He’s efficient.

He’s intentional. 

That’s one that continues to get me. He’s intentional. With everything that He does. Every last thing. He does nothing without purpose. He created Adam and Eve for purpose. He knew they would sin and need a savior. And He had that planned out, intentionally, from the start. Before time began. 

He created everything in the earth. The grass and oceans. The birds and trees and all the animals.

He created us.

Why?

Because He wanted to. Because He wanted us.

That’s so crazy to me to think that the One who created rivers and planets and stars also created me. And He wants to know me personally too. 

That realization really turned the idea of getting to know Him better into more of a desire. I wanted to know this God who loved me so much and wanted to know me so well. Who does know me so well. And He’s inviting me to get to know Him better too. All the time.  

I’ve gotten to know Him so much better since starting from Genesis. I’m not trying to read the whole bible in a year or anything. That’s too much pressure for me and I will fail, absolutely. Stuff like that doesn’t work for me. I just take it a chapter a day. Sometimes more than one. Sometimes I miss a day. And that’s okay. I’m not trying to speedrun a relationship with God. I want something more authentic and this is what works best for me right now. 

Find what works best for you. 

I want to challenge you too to do this. Start 2024 off with the intention to get to know the Lord better. It’s never too late to start. You can start in Genesis and work your way through, or you can hop around, or you can start from the gospels. Or you might start with a more familiar book you often find yourself in (mine is usually the Psalms). 

Here are a few of my personal tips and methods that work best for me. Try a few and see what works for you. 

1. Just start. 

Habits are hard to form. You’re going to fail. That’s okay. Don’t pay attention to how many days you’ve missed. You can always start again. Don’t make it a competition with yourself or anyone else. You’re building a friendship with the Lord. Just focus on the time you spend with Him. Ask Him to show Himself to you. He will.

Think of your friendships and other relationships. Did you become close with your best friend by stressing out about how much time you spent with them? Or by berating yourself for missing a few days of talking with them? I know I didn’t. We became best friends because of the time we spent together, not because I lamented and stressed myself out over any time I didn’t spend with her. She didn’t bite my head off because I didn’t text her one day. 

If you go into a relationship with God thinking He’s angry with you for every day you miss spending time with Him, you’ll never spend any time with Him. You’ll be too scared to. Just start. He’s not angry with you. He’s waiting for you to come to Him. 

“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10 

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17 

2. Pray first. 

Whenever I sit down to read a chapter I usually try to pray first. I don’t always remember to, but I definitely notice if I forget to talk with God first. It helps prepare my heart to listen better. 

It doesn’t have to be anything formal or fancy. I just ask Him to show me His hand and His heart in what I’m reading. To help me get to know Him better. To show me anything He wants to show me, but ultimately just to see Him for who He is.

God promises in Jeremiah 29:14 that He will be found by us if we come to Him. And He delivers. I started this without much expectation. But He’s come through much more than I ever thought He would. 

Sometimes, like today, I have to stop and ask Him to get my attention again. To help me listen. I started focusing on the things I was going to do after I was done with bible study and I stopped listening. But He had some good stuff for me today that I’m really happy I was able to listen to. 

It’s a good idea sometimes, too, to ask Him to get my attention off of myself and what these verses mean to me. The bible is God speaking to us about who He is and who we are to Him and how to serve Him. It’s all about Him. And it’s important to read with that in mind and sometimes, a lot of times, I need that reminder. And I need His help in that too. 

It’s so easy to read a passage and think, how does this apply to me? But it doesn’t always. Sometimes it’s God letting me in on more of Himself rather than more of myself. 

3. Pray after. 

I try to end my bible study with prayer too. I don’t always, but again, I notice a difference if I don’t. I tend to get much more out of the reading when I talk with Him about it after. About what I can see of Him in the verses. Or I’ll ask Him what He meant and what I’m supposed to get out of it. Because sometimes I have no idea what I’ve just read. 

It feels like a book club with God sometimes, but it’s helpful. It helps me understand His word better when I can talk about it with Him.

Ask Him for guidance in your reading and in your praying. Sometimes you’re not meant to get it yet. Sometimes you reread it a few times and then it clicks. Sometimes it doesn’t click until years down the line and that’s okay. Be honest with Him though. He already knows if you don’t understand it or you’re not excited by it. And if you’re honest in bringing that to Him then that allows Him to show you more than you would ever notice on your own.

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Colossians 1:9

4. Write down your prayers. 

I write these prayers down in a notebook, mostly because I have trouble keeping my thoughts together if I don’t. But it’s also really cool to be able to look back on older prayers and see how God’s grown me and where He’s taken me over the years too. 

He introduced me to the idea of rehearsing the things of God. When you rehearse something, you repeat it over and over until it’s committed to memory. I rehearse the good things He’s done for me, the places where I can see His hand. Where He’s already proven Himself to me in different ways. 

I can read my old prayers and see where He’s proven Himself to be my Provider. Or where He’s proven that He’s always with me. Or any number of things. He’s shown Himself to me over the years and by rehearsing those things, by remembering them, I can hope in Him. I can trust Him.

I’m not perfect at this by any means, but He’s grown me a lot in the last few years and He’s proven Himself a lot too.

The new year is a great time to start something new. Start with Him. See where He leads you. How He grows you. He wants to talk with you. Will you take the time to listen?