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I am of the nature to think bigger than I act and as I wish with all my heart that would be a part of my character that would change, that’s one of my constant prayers because I know that God can change me. Therefore me and New Year resolutions do not do well together.
Several years ago when I found myself actually asking God during my prayer time to help me to keep the ones I proposed for that year, He laid on my heart to try something different. Why not let a verse in Scripture guide me through the year, one that would relate to something going on in my life at that time, one that I would memorize and refer to it often when I needed it to remind me of the security and truth of God’s Word.
That sounded great to me! So I started trying to find just the right verse for that year when He laid on my heart that it was not up to me but to leave it to Him. I was anxious about it at first especially when that year was slipping away quickly and also curious about how I would know “my verse”. As always, God came through just in the nick of time 
. I remember I was listening to a Christian speaker and writer Mary Whelchel on the radio and she had my undivided attention because she was speaking about something I was going through at that time of my life. It was one of those moments that you feel like you are the only one being spoken to, been there? When she quoted the Scripture verse, it was so perfect for me and I knew right then that was it! That was my verse for the year!!! That verse got me through many times when I needed it that year and it enriched my life in a way no resolution ever could have done!
That has been several years ago and each year around this time I always look forward to see what God has for me the new year and He never fails me, ever! I am always intrigued at how He presents them to me..I no longer get anxious about it, I just accept it when it comes to me from Him. It’s actually pretty amazing!
This year He gave me my verse through Deborah Boitnott, the speaker of our church’s women’s conference and as always, it is a perfect verse for me for this upcoming year! I shared with Deborah how she was the vessel through which God used to give me my verse and she was very moved by it and thought it was something she would also reap the benefit of more so than making resolutions. I was thrilled when I received an email from her with her excitement over her verse that He had granted her after she had prayed to Him.
How about you? I know with all my heart that we have a faithful God that will fulfill your need for just the right verse that will sustain you at the most needed time and it will be the perfect one for you at that moment. I encourage you all this year to meditate on His Word and delight yourself in His Word and get ready for how it will impact your life!!
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
I Corinthians 2:9 NKJV
Recently my husband and I watched the movie The Nativity Story. Now, I have seen many movies and documentaries on the birth of our Savior but this one really touched me in a very deep and personal way. The characters of Mary and Joseph were so real to me portraying the concerns of what was happening to them much like some of us would today. There was one scene with the two of them sitting alone by an outdoor fire and I felt so much emotion between these two humans that were experiencing a wonder beyond anything they could truly comprehend. Mary looked up at Joseph and shared with him of when and how they would know of their son’s future. “Will He tell us or will it be a look that He gives us?”
Mary did you know ,that your baby boy would walk on water, that He would save our sons and daughters. That He has come to make even her new, this child that she delivered would soon deliver her. That He would give sight to blind men and calm a storm with His hand. He has walked where angels trod, that He is the Lord of Creation and will one day rule the nations.
Did she realize that her baby boy was Heaven’s perfect Lamb, that when she kissed her little baby that she was kissing the face of God…the one true I AM.
It overwhelms me to think Mary was so much like me in that she was a simple woman that experienced all the emotions and trials of every day life much like we do today, yet there was something she experienced in her young life that no one else ever will.
I truly hope that I will be able to spend some time with her in the kingdom and savor every word she breathes of the emotions she had to have felt through the years of being the mother to our Savior…….don’t you?
“Mary Did You Know” is one of my favorite Christmas songs written by Mark Lowery.
It’s beginning to “feel” a lot like Christmas to so many people. The feeling of all types of emotions that too often are stirred up deeper during this season.
There is the family that lost a loved one this year and have a feeling of dread during the holidays without that precious person in their lives anymore. It’s a sad time for them. “Christmas just won’t be the same.” I’ve been there. There are the parents that will not be able to afford the kind of Christmas they would really love to give their children and they feel frustrated about it.There are families who have a father or mother, husband or wife who are battling an illness and they feel fear that this may be their last Christmas together. There are the families who have a soldier overseas and that soldier and their family are feeling loneliness when this is the season to be with families. There are the homeless people that feel neglected as they watch families go to and fro shopping for presents for everyone but them.There are many other feelings I’m sure during this season.
There is a “feeling” though that we can all share no matter what our circumstances, no matter what our trials and that feeling is PEACE. That comes from the most precious gift of all and the true reason for the season. That gift will travel every where into every home and every heart not just during this Christmas season but throughout the year!
It is the gift given to us by our Heavenly Father, the gift of Jesus Christ and He tells us in John 16:33 …These things I have spoken unto you, that you might have peace. In this world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Oh how I hope for so many going through those tough feelings this Christmas season that they will be reminded that God sent us His Son to overcome all those “feelings’ and that we can find true joy in Him when we seek Him and lay our tribulations in His lap.
Peace to you all this Christmas season.
