I was challenged by my own sermon a few weeks ago when I spoke on the need to have a ‘plan’ so we grow in Christ.

This was backed up by the Spirit in my preparation for last week’s sermon on Genesis 1. As I considered the wonder of God and what we learn about Him I was struck by the order you find in God’s creating and so His creation. This is clear from the repetition of many phrases as well as the numbering of the days and so on. This shows God is deliberate, planned and purposeful. I realised I need to be more deliberate, planned and purposeful in my life.

I am weak and so need a plan and a system if I am going to be disciplined in my regular personal Bible reading and prayer. To be disciplined in my Bible reading I am reading the Bible in a year.

I also have a plan for my prayer time but I needed to update the system. I have a document on my computer which is simply a table on one page which is my systematic prayer tool. It was originally inspired by a book by Don Carson called ‘A Call to Spiritual Reformation’ (see the Library for this book). It contains a very helpful system for praying regularly for the things it is good to pray for. I spent sometime over the last couple of weeks on my prayer table to update it. This has helped me immensely. It doesn’t matter what system you use but as long as you plan to pray and then pray.

http://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/A-Call-to-Spiritual-Reformation-ctsr_20/