Welcome 2019!

I love dreaming about the new year…the chance to start fresh, to make better choices, reaching goals, changing my world and maybe, just maybe, help others around me to change for the better. But sometimes, well if I am honest, a lot of the time, I can get lost in the busyness of life and stay in the same old rutt…doing things the way I always have, not making better, healthier or holier choices, but easy choices. Real life-changing goals fly out the window and surviving the day kinda goals become the norm.

One Word…One Focus

Last year I tried something new. I choose a word to focus on throughout the year, to view my world, my choices through the len of this one word. The plan was to help me stay focused on who I wanted to become and how I wanted to live and not just react as life happens around me.

Surrender

My focus word for 2018 was surrender. And my focus verse was Romans 12:1.

…by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

 Choosing this word was scary, because I am a natural born leader, which really means I like to be in charge and get my way. I printed out the word and verse and placed it in a small frame in the window near my kitchen sink. Yes, I looked at it everyday. Although I don’t have any grand story about how it changed my life, what it did do was make me stop, think, and pray about things…my words, opinions, and actions. It made me turn to God, seek Him and trust Him to work in people and in situations that I might have wanted to rush in and have my say.

It is too early to share my word for 2019, I have some words that I am considering, researching and praying about.

If you have not chosen a focus word for a year, I encourage you to choose one this year. Really living it out is a big commitment. But the reward can be great, as you allow God to work in you and through you in 2019.

Choose Carefully, Not on a Whim

The steps below will guide you through choosing your focus word:

  1. Think about the kind of person you would like to become this year. Make a list of characteristrics that describe this person.
  2. Look up the definitions of the words you have listed. 
  3. Find bible verses that relate to these words.
  4. Prayerfully, chose one word from your study to be your focus word for the year.

Change Your Life

Tips for making your focus word having the impact on your life that you had hoped.

  • Remember. Find creative ways to keep your word in front of you daily. 
  • Focus. View every aspect of your life through the filter of your word. Watch for the ways God is working, ways you never expected.
  • Be transformed. Read, memorize, and mediate on God’s word. PRAY. Allow your heart, mind, and actions be changed. 
  • Write.  How are you experiencing life through your word?  How is God working in you?  What He is doing through you?
  • Share. Tell the people closest to you your word. Invite them to ask about your progress.  Listen to them and let them help.

Enough, enough all ready…

Do you need more?

As you look around your home you probably think “I don’t need more stuff.” Then you might think well I could use more…time, money and chocolate (or maybe that last one is just me 😊).

How would you respond if God appeared to you and said “I am enough, I am sufficient for all your needs”? After you pick yourself up off the floor from the shock of it, you might say something like, “I am listening“. That is pretty much what God did to Abram.

Go…I will bless you

God had appeared and spoken to Abram several times before. He had asked Abram to leave all that was familiar to him, his country, family, home and go to a place God would show him. God also had promised great things for Abram. One of the promises was that Abram would become a great nation (Gen 12:2) and that he would have numerous descendants like the stars in the sky (Gen 15:5). Now, Abram was 75 years old and his wife was barren (Gen 11:30), when he first heard this seemingly impossible promise. Yet, he believed God and moved to an unknown land leaving all his family behind, except for Sarai, his wife.

Ten years had passed, Sarai is still without children (Gen 16:1-3). Thinking they had waited long enough, Sarai has the plan…a plan that brought a child into the home, but also anger and strife. All the while, God is silent, Abram has not hear from Him for thirteen years. Then…

Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,

“I am God Almighty;

Walk before Me, and be blameless.”

I am God Almighty…

I am El Shaddai…This is more then just a title God gives Himself. This is a revelation of His character. He is saying, I am enough…I am sufficient…I can fulfill the promise I made to you. You don’t have to run ahead of Me…you don’t have to figure out a new plan…I have this.

Walk before Me

This command is to live “in full view of, under the eye of” God. In a sense, when Sarai and Abram took matters into their own hands, they turned away from God. God is now calling Abram back, to live as he had before walking in obedience in full view of God. It is much like when Jesus calls us to abide or remain with Him (John 15:5, 7). It is then that our lives are fruitful and God gives us the answers we desire.

Be Blameless

God is asking Abram to live with integrity. According to Webster’s dictionary integrity means adhere to a code of moral values; the state of being complete or undivided. God wanted Abram to trust Him completely to fulfill this promise.  As James wrote when our faith is filled with doubt or uncertainity, we are a double-minded or divided and unstable.

5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. James 1:5-8 nlt

The All-Sufficient One

God through Jesus calling on us to walk before Him and to be blameless. The Almighty is always enough. He is always sufficient provide for you and to keep all His promises.

The question we must all answer is are we willing to trust Him, to walk in love and obedience, and continually praise the Lord God the Almighty?

And the four living creatures…do not cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” Revelation 4:8