Part of the reason I haven't made a resolution is due to my stubbornness--I don't need a new year to make a change; and part of it is due to my fear of failure--I don't want to commit to something I'm not going to be able to finish.
This past Sunday, I was teaching in Children's Church. Before service started, a team member asked me if I made any New Year's Resolutions to which I responded, "Oh, no. I don't do that." She said she didn't do it either and then asked if I had heard of "one word."
She went on to explain that instead of choosing a New Year's Resolution, you choose a word to focus on and strive towards throughout the year. I remember thinking it was a cool idea, much better than a resolution, but I wasn't inspired to focus on one word myself.
I love how God works.
After Children's Church, I drove back home to pick up my family so we could all go to church together. Multiple friends had invited us to attend their church so instead of going to our regular church we decided to go to theirs. Let me just note, I absolutely love my church so I was little sad about "missing it" to attend another church but my husband had been wanting to try it since different people kept inviting us to go.
So, I'm sitting in this beautiful church, a little reluctantly simply because I'm missing "my" church, when the Minister mentions that it doesn't matter why we were there this morning but we were there for a reason. This perked my ears up a little bit and I prayed, "Okay, God I'm listening."
And do you know what he preached on? His sermon was on choosing one word to work towards this year. I could have written this off as a coincidence but I know better. Twice in one morning my attention was brought to the idea of striving towards one word this year and I decided right there during that sermon that I was going to do it.
The Minister mentioned a few different ways to determine the one word but the general theme is, "What do you want to be like at the end of the year?" He suggested finding a Bible verse to go with the one word so that you can focus on throughout the year. When he mentioned the Bible verse that I remembered God had already given me one to focus on this year! I heard a whisper, "Then you already know your word."
Some examples of words to strive towards are: Grace, Love, Stewardship, Trust, and Light. The word God gave me is: Masterpiece. After hearing the other examples, I thought my word is a little weird but it works for me.
I am striving to see myself as God sees me this year; what better way than to focus on the fact that God says I am his MASTERPIECE! Created anew in Christ Jesus to do good works! Which God Himself has gone ahead of me to prepare just for me to do!
My one word helps me to redirect my focus on God in an area I struggle with--my identity. Focusing on who I am in Christ will help me overcome distractions of doubt and keep my eyes on Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment