I wanted to start this year the same way I started 2011- with a "one little word" by which I was going to sort of theme my year. The word for 2011 was "fruitful". I loved it. It totally suited 2011 for me, so it felt like just the right word. I thought of so many words as 2012 began, but just couldn't find one that fit. Some things I wrote in my journal as I was brainstorming. . .
Filled. "He fills all things." -Ephesians 4:10; ". . . that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. . . "-Ephesians 4:13; "And of His fullness we have all received grace upon grace." -John 1:16
New. "For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland." -Isaiah 43:19 "Mediocrity is not God's plan for your life." -Jimmy Jackson
Awakened. "Awake, you who sleep; Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." -Ephesians 5:14. "I sleep, but my heart is awake. . . "-Song of Solomon 5:2. "My heart is overflowing with a good theme." -Psalm 45:1
I have a whole page where I talk about the things I'm passionate about. I want to empower others, inspire, enrich, nourish, feed. I want to create and grow and strengthen and uplift and cheer. I love the word doula and all that it means. My life will never be the same after meeting my friend and doula Jessica, who cheered me on during the birth of my son. She strengthened me and told me I was able. She reassured me when I was about to quit. She will always be inscribed on my heart for the amazing doula help she was to me that day. I want to do that in a figurative sense for the women God has placed in my life. I'm passionate about that. I'm inspired by the words of Henry C. Blinn, "Begin today! No matter how feeble the light, let it shine as best it may. The world may need just that quality of light which you have." And the words of Anne Frank, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Lord show me how I can improve my world and the world of those around me, today.
I've been reading through the Bible. So far I've gotten through Genesis 26. That first book of the Bible is so rich. So full. I've asked God to open my eyes to something new in the Scriptures every day. And He has been faithful to do it! Things I've never seen before, or am now seeing in a new light. When reading through the lives of Abraham and Isaac, a few themes just kept popping up: they pitched tents; they dug wells; they set up altars. 1) They pitched tents- God told Abraham to leave all that was familiar and go to a country he had never seen before. Abraham obeyed, and the rest of his life he moved around wherever God told him to go, pitching tents here and there. He didn't lay down roots. He didn't hold tightly to the things of the world, but pitched a tent so he could be ready at a moment's notice to obey God. How many of us could do that, literally or figuratively? 2) They dug wells- Abraham dug wells in the desert to provide water for his family in a dry, parched wilderness. Digging a well is hard work. How much of what I do is the hard, dirty work of digging a well, but will actually give life and health and wholeness to my family in the desert of life? Gives me new perspective. Hagar was out of water in the middle of the desert with her son Ishmael and God heard her cry. He "opened her eyes" to see a well of water He had provided for her and her son. I asked God to open my eyes to the wells of water He is providing in the desert for me. Finally, after Abraham died, the Philistines came along and poured dirt into many of Abraham's wells. His son Isaac came back and rebuilt the wells and renamed them the names that his father had given them. He took back what the enemy had stolen. Sometimes we have to do that. 3) They set up altars and praised God. They consulted Him before making a move. They honored Him above all. Their tents they could pack up and leave, but the altars were built and were a high priority. Pretty cool. . .
Another thing about those wells that Isaac rebuilt. . . he had some trouble as he was trying to lay claim to a space with a well for settling his family down. Every time he dug a well, someone would come along and claim that it was theirs. Finally he dug a well over which there was no dispute. He named it Rehoboth, meaning, "open space", saying, "At last the Lord has provided us enough space to prosper in this land." I was thinking. . . God has already given you and me enough space to prosper in this land. "The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance." -Psalm 16:6. "You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a wide space." -Psalm 31:7. We have all that we need to prosper in the land He placed us in. In ALL things we are MORE than conquerors. We have enough space, enough provision, to be filled and new and awakened in this year. Lord grant us that we dwell in this land and prosper.
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