By David Phillips
The numerical designation for the coming year lends itself as a good illustration for how we would like to see – with 20-20 vision. Anyone who has 20-20 vision has great eyesight. For the year 2020, one of the important things to pray for and work toward is to have better spiritual vision. In the interest of helping to accomplish that, our personal study theme for the coming year will be “Looking Beyond Me”.
Obviously, the improvement of our spiritual vision involves not only God’s assistance, for which we pray, but also our diligent effort, in which we must strive. Selfishness, pride and fear are things that famously interfere in our efforts to spiritually see beyond ourselves. In 2020, these monthly themes will be offered with appropriate scriptures to guide our efforts to grow stronger by looking beyond the shallow self-interest that characterizes so many around us.
Let’s sharpen our focus and tune our vision to more clearly see God’s will for our lives in the coming year, spending frequent time before an open Bible.
Looking Beyond Me in 2020
January – Looking beyond “me” in service to God. Deuteronomy 10:12-15
February – Looking beyond “me” in serving others. John 13:1-17
March – Looking beyond “me” to be a better family member. Ephesians 5:22-6:4
April – Looking beyond “me” in practicing personal purity. Colossians 3:1-10
May – Looking beyond “me” to be a better example. Philippians 3:17-21
June – Looking beyond “me” to trust God more. Psalm 31:19-24
July – Looking beyond “me” in truly following Jesus. Luke 9:57-62
August – Looking beyond “me” to reach greater maturity. 2 Peter 1:5-11
September – Looking beyond “me” in deeper humility. James 4:7-17
October – Looking beyond “me” when challenged by persecution. 1 Peter 4:12-19
November – Looking beyond “me” in deeper faith. 1 Peter 1:3-9
December – Looking beyond “me” to be more thankful. Luke 17:12-19