A Few Good Reads for the New Year
Some resources to help you grow spiritually in 2025.
The beginning of a new year is a great time to focus on growing spiritually. From starting new devotional books to recommitting to prayer, the change of the calendar gives us a good opportunity to think about our spiritual practices. Over the last week, I ran across a couple of good books and articles focused on spiritual growth in the new year. Also, at the end I share a couple of articles that caught my attention last week.
Everyday Gospel
If you have not found a daily devotional for the new year, this one from Paul Tripp will challenge you in the faith while helping you to engage with God’s word. Tripp follows a daily Bible reading plan a writes a devotion from one of the readings. I was able to read 25 of these over Christmas and each one masterfully connects our lives to the Gospel message.
You might also benefit from Tripp’s New Morning Mercies.
Go Forward in Love
No Christian author and pastor has helped and challenged me in the last decade like Tim Keller. He is with Jesus, but his writings live on. This new book collects 365 daily readings from Keller’s writings. These devotions cover a wide variety of issues on the Christian life.
“Build Spiritual Habits in Just a Few Minutes”
Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra and Megan Hill offer suggestions for spiritual practices you can adopt based on the amount of time you have to invest. Whether you have one minute or thirty minutes, they show how you can redeem the time to grow as a follower of Jesus. “While we were at it, we found it helpful to pair one of these spiritual habits with a daily task that takes the same time. While you are putting on your jacket and grabbing your car keys, you could be growing in grace.”
“Last of the Middlebrow Protestants”
There have been many reflections on the life and faith of Jimmy Carter since his death a couple of weeks ago. Tyler Hummel had the most thoughtful I have encountered, as he thinks through the similarities between Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. To him, they represent the last of a specific type of Christian politician. “The ‘middlebrow Protestants’ represented the heart of a culture working through its contradictions and failures. One must wonder whether a post-Christian America will work through its own so gracefully or earnestly.”
“Trump, Trudeau, and the 51st State”
Canada has been on Americans’ minds more than usual recently. Justin Trudeau’s resignation coupled with President Trump’s insistence that Canada could become a 51st state have kept our neighbor to the north in the headlines. Tim Challies explains how Canada arrived at this moment and how American Christians can pray for our brothers and sisters there. “Pray that Canadian Christians would not despair over bad government or have idolatrous hope in better government, but fix their ultimate trust on God.”