Hey friends, Happy New Year I hope your new year is off to a great start! Did you make resolutions? What are your dreams for the new year? Have you made any plans yet? I am easing into the New Year showing myself some kindness and grace after a very hectic holiday season. My husband just went back to work, and I am still trying to get my house back together and get rid of the glitter. SO MUCH GLITTER.
I love the fullness Christmas adds to my home, but when I take everything down and put it away my house feels empty. For me, this is an excellent time to evaluate our possessions, purge the clutter in my home and the things I no longer love to make room for the new stuff we added over the holidays. The perfect time to refresh and rearrange my house for the upcoming season.
This is also a great time to dream, plan, pray and prepare for the new year. I am devoting time to do this over the next couple of weeks as our routine returns to normal to pray and plan for 2018. To purge things from my life and my soul that need to go, and to make room for the new things God wants to do in my life in 2018. Last year, I wrote about my one word for 2017 Contentment, and Do you have a Scripture of the Year?
As of right now, I don’t have any goals or resolutions written down, not one word, or even a scripture for the year, but what I do have is a desire to experience more of God’s presence in my life in 2018.
Last year our family experienced many wonderful milestones, but with it came a degree of difficulty and pain. In those difficult moments, it was a challenge to laugh at the future and be contentment. The one that remained true in 2017 was that God loves me, he hears my prayers, and is intimately acquainted with my sorrows. Although he also delights to answer our prayers and sometimes in the most unexpected ways.
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. – Proverbs 16:9 ESV
I want the Lord to guide me and direct me to do the things that he wants me to do in 2018. My year did not start the way I thought or planned it would. Sometimes we make plans, but God has planned interruptions to get our attention or teach us something new.
My interruption came in the form of a winter storm that is blowing across the United States right now and that threatened a hard freeze where I live in Texas. My son and I went out at dark to brave the cold, and the sleet to pick as many oranges as we could from our orange tree, before we lost them all to frost.
We ended up with an entire clothing basket full of oranges, and this is after we have already picked tons of oranges and shared them with others. God provided an abundance of oranges for us to harvest this year. And isn’t that just like to God to provide a bountiful harvest, but we do not see that harvest until a seed has been planted, watered, pruned, and fertilized.
What a beautiful lesson for the new year. If I want to reap a harvest, first I have to sow a seed. Or maybe it is my job to come alongside someone else and water a seed that has already been planted.
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” – 1 Corinthians 3:6 ESV
What will we do this year with the gifts and talents he has given us this year?
When we humble ourselves before God and take our meager offering of our lives to Him and we leave it at his feet, it is up to him to guide, direct, anoint and bless. Our job is to faithfully seek him and plant seeds, but he is the one that causes growth.
When we humble ourselves before God and take our meager offering of our lives to Him and we leave it at his feet, it is up to him to guide, direct, anoint and bless. Our job is to faithfully seek him and plant seeds, but he is the one that causes growth.
I spent the day yesterday peeling oranges, juicing, and making jars filled with citrus vinegar to clean my home. You see we can be given a bounty, but will we be good stewards of that harvest? Once I picked the fruit I needed to do something with it, or it would rot. So I got busy giving away more fruit and finding other ways that I could utilize the bounty I’ve been given.
As believers, we have all been entrusted with the gospel. Are we going to keep it for ourselves or will we give it away? Our world is in need of hope. My challenge to you this year is to shine your light brighter in 2018 then you did in 2017. Seek the presence of God while he may be found. Plant lots of seeds and watch the LORD bring the harvest. I am praying for a bountiful harvest for you in 2018 and look forward to what the Lord has planned for us this year. If you need some inspiration, check this post on Choosing to be Thankful & Sowing A Pocketful of Seeds.
Leave a comment on your one word, or scripture for 2018. I would love to know what your goals and dreams for the new year or how you plan to sow seeds and share your light with the world.
Recent Comments