Key verse: Luke 1:37 “For nothing is impossible with God.”
Consistency and Obedience. My words for this past year, 2021. One thing I have learned from God in this is that He does not take it lightly when you ask Him to dedicate 12 months to only two words. In other words, He has 12 months to teach you them so He will teach them in many ways, even in drawn-out ways.
I started this year having no idea that I was going to be in college right now. I began 2021 as a junior in high school, then found out that I was actually a senior who was going into college in a few months as a sophomore. Imagine hearing that at 17.
For a while, I was struggling to get through all of this schooling. Actually, pretty much the entire year up until the second I graduated was a struggle. Despite the external struggle, I had a sense of peace that I can never explain the logic behind other than faith. I remember one super-specific yet random moment at work where the peace settled in officially. I was sitting on the lifeguarding stand thinking about all of the assignments I still had due. I literally thought to myself “there is no way God would put me in this amazing of a situation and not deliver me through it.” In other words, I knew I was going to graduate. From then on, I almost never had doubts that I was going to graduate. And when I mean any normal human would have had doubts, I mean I had over 100 assignments still due only 2 weeks before graduation while being a manager working doubles.
“Almost never” does not mean never but in my doubt, I ultimately knew that God would make a way. Again, “there is no way God would put me in this amazing of a situation and not deliver me through it.” My transcript ended up being a day late and my college gave me an extension. There were many moments as miraculous as this. It is so clear where God is if you stop and notice that it is Him. When He puts you in a situation, He makes a way EVERY TIME. God works past law, past the norm, and through anyone.
Somewhere in between 100 missing assignments and graduating college, I came to a realization. God is testing my obedience and consistency. It was so clear! He would never just hand me obedience and consistency, the only way I would keep it throughout life is to really learn the lesson. How? By putting me into multiple moments where the only solution was God. I HAD to have faith or I wouldn't have graduated.
Again, by God having me graduate a year early I HAD to have obedience to sit down and study and I had to have consistency in that obedience. The vice versa applies, I had to be obedient to that consistency.
The only way that I was able to come to this realization is by keeping my mind open to the possibility of God still being in the mess. What do I mean by “God still being in the mess”? I had to allow myself to see that in the difficult times, He may still be there. I could not close my mind off to that possibility. I want to cry every time someone messages me telling me all about the mess in their life and then asking, “where is God?” I completely understand this question and how one would come to it. In these struggles, they question the presence of God. It makes me sad because I want them to come to the realization that He is especially present in the chaos and mess. A loving God would not run away from the opportunity to help you in these times of distress. These moments are where He best demonstrates His grace. Do you think that you will really learn anything lasting by experiencing only happy moments? Imagine how weak and fragile you would be if your strength and faith, because that's where our strength comes from a lot of times, had never been tested.
The other way I was able to come to this realization is by actually sitting still, thinking, and talking to God. How would I have ever been able to keep my mind open enough to be able to realize God was working for a prayer from months before if I had never even sat still? Sitting still gave my mind the time to remember that I had prayed those words over my year.
I hope you can learn the importance of sitting still and allowing God to speak to you. It is really hard for Him to talk to you and for you to actually hear Him when you have so much other chaos in your mind that you aren't even listening for Him. I always say, God speaks in whispers and you will never hear His whisper if you are too busy searching for a yell. In other words, you want God to speak to you while you go about your chaotic life but in order for that to happen, you are assuming He yells over your chaos. But in reality, He often whispers.
I hope that you can use this mindset to take a lot of the trials that you go through in life and apply a different mindset to them. A more Godly mindset. Are you forgetting prayers that you have prayed? A word you chose months ago?
As you go into this year, I want you to think about this. What word do you want God to teach you? Not just want, but NEED. Maybe choose a set of words. Now ask yourself, are you too afraid to experience the trials and faith-testing that will come with that? You would probably be lying if you said you weren't afraid. Not knowing how He will teach you lessons is scary because the unknown is scary. That's why I want you to think about what you are scared of, (I’d go with the word you are thinking of as you read that), and apply the new mindset to it; God is in the mess. Now I am sure that you are afraid you are going to go through something that you do not want to happen if you allow God to teach you. So next, think, have you ever gone through something that you would take back? If yes, would taking back that thing make you less of a person or more of a person? The answer to this is often less of a person because even if the lesser part of us put us through this situation you want to take back, it also grew us and taught us.
My point for this is, I want you to realize that there is nothing you have gone through that has not developed you in at least one positive way so hold onto that truth and step out of faith, not fear, when choosing your word for 2022.
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