Turning Your Own Life Around: Where to Start

In the face of spiraling national problems, what can you personally do to protect yourself from the present morally adverse atmosphere?

1. Make reading and studying the Bible an important priority.
The publishers of The Good News offer a free booklet, How to Understand the Bible, that shows you the fundamental keys to grasping the message of the Bible and getting the most out of your personal study. We also offer a free 12-lesson Bible Study Course that will guide you through the pages of Scripture and reveal how basic biblical doctrines can enrich and improve your life. We also offer booklets on many biblical subjects on this Web site.

2. If you're not already doing so, set aside time to regularly communicate with God in daily prayer.
"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you," we're told (James 4:8). Ask God to help you better understand His Word and see how you can apply it in all aspects of your life.

The Bible can help us all to exercise our God-given senses to discern both good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). Our free booklet Making Life Work shows us how to make Scripture more user-friendly—revealing how it applies to everyday, practical situations.

3. Get your spiritual house in order.
Read our free booklet What Is Your Destiny? to begin to understand God's great, awe-inspiring purpose for you. Read the free booklet Transforming Your Life: The Process of Conversion to learn how to attain that great purpose.

4. Evaluate your priorities and how you use your time.
Ephesians 5:16 tells us we should be "redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Make the points listed above a high priority in your life.

Following that, your Internet, music, TV, movie and reading entertainment should be governed and guided by practical, down-to-earth advice from our Creator as found in the Bible. Its pages can help us recognize and avoid many subtle pitfalls that we may not realize are even there. The book of Proverbs is particularly helpful in this regard.

Carefully evaluate the worth of your own entertainment—making sure that it is uplifting, positive and encouraging. Consider, for example, the Internet. While many Web sites contain much useful and helpful information, there are also many others that waste your time with worthless trivia and trash.

Noted British commentator Bryan Appleyard recently offered some useful tips in the Jan. 20, 2008, issue of London's Sunday Times about using the Internet more wisely: "Tired of pop, porn and celebrity prattle online? . . . We risk drowning in this info-ocean . . . Judgement, therefore, rather than brute fact-finding, is the key. The trick is to narrow your focus . . . and to refine your sense of what is serious and what is not . . . You can lose hours [indeed, many valuable hours] taking nonsense seriously." GN