Living Out Your Word of the Year in Light of Who God Is: Becoming Holy as He is Holy vs. Being Our Best Selves...

In my last blog, I spoke about the phrase "My soul was made to respond" from the song "1000 Names" by Phil Wickham. This phrase stood out to me because of something very specific the Lord has been doing in my life since the beginning of 2020.

During the season of New Year's Resolutions and Word-of-the-year proclamations, I felt this tugging in my heart to examine these practices through the lens of Scripture. My impression was that there was nothing innately wrong with either UNLESS they were labeled as directives given by God but backed only by human ingenuity for the purpose of personal growth.

That year, I put out a blog with the encouragement to make sure that we are measuring our commitments by how God was speaking to us. Honestly, I was limited in vocabulary, but I knew that Satan had tried to lure me down a path of self-helpism, and I was headed down a theological path that was dangerous. Yet God was so faithful, putting people in my way who would speak the truth to me through Scripture, and I needed to talk about it.

By the end of that year, many very hard things had happened. My husband was gone on deployment, and my kids were now gone, trying to find their place in this crazy world. The AT&T bombing had happened, and as I sat there with no Wifi at all -- more alone than I had felt in a while -- I began to read and pray in a way that could only be described as a movement of the Spirit of Jesus. What came from that was an understanding that any improvements made in my life would only be temporary if they were about me. HOWEVER, if they were made to know and serve God and serve others, they would have to be backed by God's Word and the knowledge of who He is.

The following year, 2021, would not be any easier. I would have almost a full year alone, and I began to have a tremendous amount of challenging, girly problems. I was struggling, but praise God! He opened my eyes even more, helping me believe He is who He says He is. So, the New Year's blog headed into 2022 was a declaration: I cannot just have a word of the year, but I must put the Word in its full context in my heart all year!! I was physically weak from the hysterectomy I ended up having, but my heart was full. I had seen and known God. I was weak -- and so prone to wander -- but He is strong...completely trustworthy, and altogether lovely!

Without coincidence, that next, frigid January, my home was still going through a LOT of changes, and in the midst of all that, by God's providence, I was invited to be a part of a study called "Experiencing God." In that space, God gave me language for everything I sought to understand. He showed me that the only way I would "become" new and live victoriously would be to experience Him in His fullness, learn to call Him by Name, and acknowledge His attributes as displayed through Scripture.

This practice changed my way of serving, from asking Him to bless what I had chosen to do to joining Him in what He was already doing around me. This understanding made me stop my fruitless striving—or at least better discern when that's what I was doing—and turn back to Him, asking Him to reveal Himself to me in a way I had not known so that I could be even more free of myself and more full of Him!

"He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3:30

Fast forward to today...January 1, 2025. I sit in awe of all He has done in this heart that is so prone to wander. I used to feel so small and annoying...out of place before the Throne of God. But now...even though Satan tempts me with that lie...I know my God. I know Him because He taught me to stop seeking my best self and to rest in His holiness.

My aim for this year will not be a vow or a word—it will be a Name. This year, I will give all I have to live out God's character and attributes displayed through Jesus. I will fail and fall flat on my face, but praise be to my "great High Priest, whose name is Love, who ever lives and pleads for me."

Dear friends, it truly is not wrong to make commitments towards doing better things in our lives! My question is for every Christian who is set to rise in a new way this year: What is God already doing in and around you?

Could it be that nothing seems to be working out because your soul was not made to respond to the ways and rewards of this world but to The King of Kings and Lord of Lords alone?

I challenge you to take time to consider the fact that everything belongs to God, and that He can meet you in every area of your life because He is perfect. He is waiting for you to turn from lukewarm ideas of your best life toward Him...Such an awesome, faithful, mighty, merciful, wonderful, and GENEROUS Father. One who keeps on knocking, wanting to give you everything that you need to partake in His divine nature in order that you might overcome according to His plan (2 Peter 1).

"See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.“To the one who conquers I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” Revelation 3:20-21

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