Word for the year

At the suggestion of a good friend and fellow blogger, Mary Griffith , I started praying and asking God to show me a word for the year. One small string of letters to help me focus on God and a word that would summarize what He has in store for the coming year.

For 2006 the word God gave me was ENJOY. A Word for the heart is the post I wrote about the vision God put before me for 2006. Here's a little excerpt...

Enjoy the sunrises I’m blessed to see, the precious moments I have talking with my Daddy before the day swings into motion, connecting with my hubby, the sweet hugs of my girls, talking with my friends, and feeling the pleasure of God as I do the work He’s called and created me to do.

The vision God cast before me, including my word for the year, can be summed up in one simple favorite phrase John Piper slightly altered from the Westminster Shorter Catechism …

The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

Last night my husband and I sat by the Christmas tree and talked over 2006. Sadness cloaked my heart as I remembered all the ways I'd failed to ENJOY God in the past year. All the sicknesses and my grumbling about them, the pressures of book deadlines, and missed time with my family. I felt heart weary at the realization I'd failed to understand and live out my word for 2006.

But before I went to bed, God whispered a new word for 2007 and a few needed reminders:

"I will never give up on you."

And that He never measures me the way I do: with a scale, popularity vote, a mirror, or praises. He simply loves me. He loves you too.

2006 is slipping through our hands and 2007 looms large on the horizon. But God has already been there. He knows what's ahead. And He isn't at all upset by what we think we didn't accomplish in the last 12 months. He knew that too.

Last year when the Lord cast the vision before me there was with it a clear reminder to simply trust Him, to rest in Him with a quiet heart.

I failed more than I succeeded.

But God reminded me as I woke this morning there were times I lived my word for 2006. Times I truly ENJOYed Him and the myriad things He sent my way last year. Times when His life was lived through me.

Not my success. HIM.

So my word for 2007 brings me hope that God is indeed not finished with me yet. Because this word includes all the lessons of 2006 that are tucked in my heart, and all the ones I’m still struggling to understand.

God’s word for me in 2007 is REST.

If it’s anything like last year’s word it won’t be the fun I looked forward to with the hope that ENJOY meant I’d have a happy and exciting 2006.

A year wiser, I’m looking forward to the lessons of 2007 knowing there will be hard fought battles, tear filled circumstances, and quiet times of refreshing.

Those battles and tears go hand in hand with the refreshing like two sides of a coin.

This coming year my heart’s desire is again to know God and to step deeper into His REST. I already know He’s there, having prepared in advance the good things He has in store for me to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

For you too. Will you simply trust Him and in rest in Him with a quiet heart?

Or maybe He has a different word for you. I pray you’ll ask Him to show you. When He does, please let me know. I’d love to pray with you about it too.

Together let's look forward to 2007… a year full of promise and possibility.