Wednesday Wisdom | Continuing with Spiritually Good Intentions in the New Year

Friends,

You started the year with good intentions. You read the blog. You prayed. You made plans. You breathed in the hope that this year would be different: your walk with God would deepen, your love would grow warmer, your focus sharper, and your days filled with great purpose.

Here is the honest truth: a few weeks in, our good intentions can start to feel slower than we hoped. The initial spark fades a bit. Life’s routine presses in.

We catch yourself saying things like:
“I haven’t read my Bible like I wanted to.”
“I didn’t pray like I planned.”
“I feel stuck.”

If that sounds familiar — good. You’re not alone.Intentions aren’t a one-time spiritual sprint; they’re a long, slow walk with God.That doesn’t mean your early efforts were failures — far from it. They were faithful beginnings. But intention without perseverance can feel like a promise unkept. So here’s how we continue from here:

Return to What Truly Matters
Good intentions often start with big ideas: read more, pray more, be more. You are enough. What matters most isn’t the volume of our spiritual activity but the orientation of our hearts toward God. If your heart is turning toward Him, you’re still walking the right way. That’s good news!

Keep It Small and Real
Intentions that demand big leaps tend to die quickly. Instead, return to the small faithful things. Keep it simple with a short prayer at your bedside, reading one verse with genuine reflection, or showing gratitude when you don’t feel particularly thankful. These are the rhythms that make spiritual life stick and help spiritual disciplines take root.

Let Grace Catch Your Slips
You might miss a day of Bible reading. God still loves you. You might forget prayer until bedtime. The Holy Spirit hasn’t abandoned you. These things don’t mean you failed but reveals you’re human. Jesus is still for you. God’s grace is big enough to meet us in the cracks. Thankfully, His mercy doesn’t run out just because our. discipline does.

Steady Your Heart on the One Who Is Steady
Spiritual intentions aren’t about perfect rhythm, but about staying connected to Jesus through the whole year, even once the new-year glow wears off. Let your faithfulness be measured not by a checklist, but by a heart that keeps turning back toward Him.

So if your year has started well, but now feels ordinary, slow, or even just plain hard, don’t panic. You’re exactly where many of us are: learning what it means to walk in grace more than sprint in zeal.

Keep going. Keep walking. Keep turning toward God. That’s what good spiritual intentions become when they take root in real life.