First off, I am really excited about this year. I know this sounds cliche and maybe corny, but albeit - I am anticipating seeing the Lord move/work in a way I've yet to experience this year. I say that in full awareness that sometimes He works out of pain, but whatever the venue of His light and purpose being illuminated this year, I'm ready to watch Him show off.
I guess if I had a "resolution" this year it would simply be less of me, more of Him.
Sounds hypocritical to say as I sit here writing a BLOG (about yours truly, nonetheless), but in all seriousness I think if I could sum up this past year it would be God revealing the yuckiness of my heart (selfishness, laziness, unkind words, comparing to others - not Him, self-righteousness, bitterness, lack of grace, self-promotion, and so forth) and the areas where I chose exalting self over Him. And I'll be honest - it's an ongoing process with me where I feel like a failure more than a victor. But that's the good part...that it's not about me obtaining victory but relinquishing my life to the VICTOR.
His patience is humbling and brought me to tears this morning as I contemplated it.
And you know what one of the greatest truths that has been a theme over this past year is? It's that the Bible is not about me. Who would have thought!
A teacher this morning summed it up perfectly to what I have been learning this morning:
The bible is ONE book, with ONE hero, who is on ONE mission. And that mission is to seek and save the lost, bringing all nations to worship and glorify Him as Lord.
And then HE invites us - His children - to partake in that mission alongside Him...to die to self (our dreams, pursuits, fame, wealth, etc) and surrender to Him for the sake of reaching all nations for Him. It is themed from Abraham in Genesis to Revelations how God blesses his people so that they can, in turn, be a blessing to the nations.
I loved this question from this morning's teaching:
"What if we utilized our western wealth to gather world worship?"
What if we used our blessings (which we all have abundantly) to bless the nations and tell them of God's redemptive power?
Anyway, I'm not really sure why I sat down to write this other than sometimes I can't help but write thoughts down that seem like they might explode within me (I'm a nerd), but I truly am crazy excited and bursting with anticipation for what lies ahead.
I know one thing: this year is going to be busy. And I know a lot of people knock being "busy" and say you need to free your schedule more and experience freedom from busyness, but I'm choosing to embrace it this year (if you hear me complain about it - smack me please). Between raising kids, being a wife (a good one, ha), discipling, being discipled, basketball season, taking a weekly college missions course (with homework that actually gets graded and class projects), mission trips, summer overseas adventures, community group, supporting the husband and their basketball ministry, one child that starts kindergarten in august (oh my!) and let's not forget the 4th child being born at the end of April (double OH MY) - this year is sure to be full of some unexpected craziness, to say the least.
Ha. All of those welcome ample opportunities for the Lord to continue to strip me down.
Here we go!
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