MY ONE WORD FOR 2015

A few years ago I started choosing ONE word to focus on for the entire year.  I realized that my making resolutions was a waste of time because I really didn't keep them past February.  How about you?  Someone encouraged me to "pray" for a revealing of my word.  It was interesting how GOD helped me "see" what HE wanted me to focus on.  Words of scripture started jumping off the page at me and I would see a particular word on the front of books, magazines or on a wooden plaque in a country store.  I think GOD knew my heart and what my soul needed to learn and I would find a word over and over in unexpected places.

It is now 4 years later and my previous words have been, to give you an example: Abide, Glorify, Redeemed, and Joy.  Each word I will say, I have come to understand in a way that I never thought I would.  All the words also gave me a starting point here to write about throughout the year.  It is as if GOD gives me a laser focus and I keep searching all year for what the word means in a deeper way with HIS guidance.  But what is most interesting, is that by the end of the year I am sorry to let the word I have embraced go.  I never forget it of course, but with the passage of time and a New Year coming, I must push forward, persevere, and choose another word to grow with and learn all about.

  
I have over the past few years really fallen in love with GOD'S WORD.  I will search and read different versions of the Bible and compare scripture from one version to another.  HIS word for me really ends up being a "light for my path" all year long.  With today being December 31st, I am saying goodbye to my word for 2014 which was JOY.  Looking back, I really did have a JOY-filled year, and I learned to find JOY in all situations, no matter how difficult.  I do pray that I can continue to bring JOY to others with my encouragement. What I learned most is that CHRIST is my pure JOY like nothing else here on earth!  PSALM 21:6 says: "Surely YOU have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the JOY of YOUR presence." Knowing that CHRIST loves me and forgives me is all the JOY I need to walk daily on my path through life.

My new word for 2015 is......HOLY.  All of us want to live a more HOLY life, but what does that mean?  I need a better understanding of how HOLY our GOD is.  HE is the HOLY ONE above all and HIS ways are HOLY.  In 1 Peter 1: 15 it says: "But just as HE who called you is HOLY, so be HOLY in all you do."  That alone is quite an undertaking!

I would love to hear from you dear reader, so if you are inclined, leave me a comment on your WORD.  Make sure you tell your friends what your word is.  They should keep you accountable and ask you throughout the year: how is your word coming?  Let us encourage each other to focus and embrace our WORDS each week and month.  Ask GOD to give you that laser focus. HE will!  HE always does!  HE is to be trusted in that way.

May you have a joyous New Year!  And may we all remember that we are part of a "royal priesthood, a HOLY nation, a people belonging to GOD...." 1 Peter 2: 9.