Whether you've finalized your 2020 resolutions, don't have plans to make any, or are somewhere in between, the best place to start thinking about change in the New Year is with the Word of God.  Before you start figuring out how to get out of debt or shed those holiday pounds (and those are wonderful goals!), start with the Bible, and with prayer, ask God to guide your priorities.  Even within the 66 books of the Bible, you may wonder where to begin, so here are some suggestions.

In 2 Timothy 2:2, the Apostle Paul instructs his protégé Timothy: "And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."  These words set forth an effective plan for spreading the Gospel and investing meaningfully in the lives of others.  For this devotional, our focus is on the word "commit to."  It means "to entrust, to commit to one's charge."  A helpful picture of this action is the relay race where the one currently carrying the baton commits that baton to someone else who is reliable, who will, in turn, be able to hand it on to someone else.  
As I was studying this text afresh recently, I came across a resource that explained reasons that professionals have identified for what they call "baton drops."  What goes wrong that causes a costly baton drop.  I was amazed to find principles that can carry over in our discipleship efforts to pass our faith on to those around us and future generations.  Here they are: