Instead of making hollow spiritual goals for the New Year, why not actually do something about them? Actions speak louder than words and God is waiting for us to get off our comfy chairs.

“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11, NKJV).

We must change dramatically if we will see pronounced change in the New Year.

* We recline and whine and that the church is not growing.
* We give less and grouse that the church is broke.
* We attend less and complain about the numbers.
* We stop inviting people and complain that no one is evangelizing.
* We don’t study our Bibles and scream about Biblical ignorance.

In this New Year, let us finally throw off the shackles and work to make this the best year for our congregation. We must stop whining, grousing, complaining, blaming and screaming and put our hands in the dirt and work.

We must repent that we have talked more than we have served the Lord. The transformation process has stopped and we must return to the Lord (Romans 12:1-2).

How can we accomplish all of this? We can invest in prayer in 2014 and become stronger and more devoted in the process.

When we make prayer a priority, we give God the keys and allow him to lead. As a result, our entire worldview changes from fleshly to spiritual. We see souls as priorities and we grow smaller as God grows larger in our hearts.

Prayer connects us with God and we give all of our lives to him. How can we do that and not be changed?

Richard Mansel @ www.forthright.net