I love wishing people a Happy New Year even after being a few weeks into the month. There’s something about keeping the reality that it is a new year fresh in our minds and hearts that keeps us on track with all that we have set out to do, accomplish and become.
I’m not one to set New Years resolutions, but I do take time to pray, to seek God and ask Him, “What do you have for me his year? How can I love & serve, well? I pray that He would give me eyes to see and ears to hear all that He wants to reveal to me. I pray that I would be immovable in His promises and flexible with His process & timing. I find myself with a verse from the Bible, a statement and even a word that I anchor in my heart for the days to come.
At about September of this year, I was finished–finished with 2016 and all that it had been for me. It wasn’t the year that I expected to live out, one that I wasn’t hoping for or anticipating. I wanted OUT. As I began to seek God, search within myself and pretty much beg God to GET ME OUT OF THIS YEAR, He showed me something better.
In the middle of my tears, snot (you know that kind of cry), my clenched fists and defeated posture, I had a BLOG moment. I wanted to GET OUT of this year but God asked me, “Sarah, What will YOU GET OUT of this year?”
I know it was a process He had been taking me through, but in a moment I saw it differently. Life can be hard, situations can be difficult and seasons can be dry–when those times come, our first response is usually to want out.
Rather than asking WHEN can we get out of it, we should be asking WHAT can we get out of it.
When we search for what we can learn, understand and grow from in the midst of our trouble, our pain carries a purpose. The truth is, our God IS a deliverer and HE will deliver us OUT of dry and tough seasons, but it’s up to us to get something OUT of it.
So many people wish to forget the passing year–burry it, burn it and even throw it away. But God doesn’t work that way. Although He makes ALL things new and desires for us to look forward, He builds on what we have experienced, walked through and even learn from. As much as I wanted to leave 2016 in the dust, I knew I needed to take some things with me.
I’m thankful for all that I walked through and experienced in 2016, the good and the bad. I don’t say that because it’s over, I say that because in September, while I begged Him to get me out, He gave me eyes to see what I could GET OUT of it all. In the middle of “that year” things shifted in me.
This understanding allowed me to finish the year in strength and walk into a new year with momentum and a renewed perspective.
What are you hoping to forget from 2016 that God is asking you to remember?
