This month’s end-of-year FAITH INVENTORY has me convicted about, and praying over, this piercing question: “Hey Mark, will Christ be your NORTH STAR in 2022?”    I’m not sure why God has me contemplating this question with such intense focus right now as 2021 prepares its fade to black. I have heard countless versions of the NORTH STAR metaphor for over 20 years, mostly as a business strategy....

This yawning morning in December has me, once again, taking my end-of-year Faith Inventory to prepare for the arrival of 2022. Bracing for the holiday crush, I am acutely aware that there are millions of Christians on planet earth who are waking up discontented, if not depressed, about their life and JOYLESS walk with Christ. That’s why checking in on our LEVEL OF JOY is the next action step in this...

The INTENSITY of our year-end FAITH INVENTORY and READINESS for 2022 is about to swell as we take a deep look at where we are in our walk with God TODAY and where he would have us go TOMORROW. The intensity comes from his call for us to become SPIRITUALLY MATURE.    “We are not meant to remain as children, but to grow up in every way into Christ.” Ephesians 4:14-15.     This...

This just in from our global tribe of online followers:    “I love the series on taking faith inventory in December to get ready for the next year. My question is would our faith increase or decrease if we knew the future?”    This is a perfect next step in our year-end Faith Inventory before we greet 2022. And my mind immediately went to SPIRITUAL INDIFFERENCE. I want my faith...

VERB  action, state, or occurrence.    NOUN  people, places, or things.    In the early years AFTER I gave my life to Jesus and BEFORE my complete surrender, my faith was a NOUN because I had not fully RELEASED CONTROL to him. I was playing it safe. Little prayer. Little commitment. Little action. My faith was a NOUN.    Every believer—me, you, everyone—has...

My year-end “Faith Inventory & Review” was interrupted this past weekend when I got really sick. We were in the middle of a trip to celebrate our birthdays and laying on my back gave me A LOT of time to work on that review. I would never CHOOSE that approach, but God used it in a powerful way by having the question WHAT’S NEXT dominate my thoughts about where he wants me to go in 2022. I hope...

I love to challenge myself in just about everything, but especially in my faith walk by asking the HARD questions. And that is exactly what my wife Cindy and I did this past weekend on a trip to the hills just outside of Yosemite National Park to celebrate our birthdays. (It makes it easy when our birthdays are three hours apart in the same year). Anyway…after a long walk in a silent forest, I relaxed...

Let’s face it, we do not like to ask for HELP. Not for directions on the road. Not for advice on what we wear. Not for input on what we should or should not eat. My challenge to you today is the next step in our end-of-year Faith Inventory process and is expressed as a question: “Are you asking God for HELP?”    Please set aside your quick, reflexive YES and be OPEN to the possibility that...

I LOVE DECEMBER! It has my birthday and my wife’s birthday—born 3 hours apart in the same year, btw. It has our wedding anniversary. And, of course, most important of all, it has CHRISTMAS. But there’s another high point in my December—a life-transforming year-end review of where I am in my walk with God and where he wants me to go. I introduced that process to you in the past couple of days and my...

Yesterday I shared how in early December of each year I take inventory of my life and then build a “CHANGE RAMP” leading into the new year. Today we are going to focus on COMMITTING to this process and that comes with this CAUTION:    You may be thinking, to one degree or another, “I’ve heard this before and I am already ready for the new year.”    That’s OK because that’s normal....