Our New Year's Prayer For You.
As we always do, Hubby and I had our end-of-year meeting date to review the year, plan, and pray for the upcoming year. As part of our meeting date, we ask questions to reflect on our year and how best we can continue improving and growing as we transition into the new year.
This year, the question "How did 2021 go for you overall?" was met with a very different answer from previous years. In the spirit of transparency, I have always answered this question from a place of sadness and regret. Sadness because the goals set the prior year were either aborted or only partially completed because of arguments that planted confusion amongst hubby and me. We would always start the new year off so well, but around certain months, we would find that old patterns and habits would creep back up and derail all we had hopefully planned towards on December 31st of the prior year.
This year, my answer surprised me, and I am sure the look on my face gave away just how surprised I was to my hubby. Although not a perfect year or one without problems, 2021 was one of the best years of my life! For the first time in a long time, I experienced joy and peace.
Looking back over the year, the best thing that happened to me was the ability to experience the love of God beyond just knowing it, reading it, or hearing about it. I moved from just knowing scriptures to seeing them come alive in my heart and experiencing their life-transforming power.
Nehemiah 8:10 & Philippians 4:7 were no longer scriptures I recited only in difficult moments without a fundamental understanding of what they meant. Instead, the Joy of the Lord is my strength, empowered me to understand that JOY IS STRENGTH, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, WILL indeed guard my heart and mind!
A stirring occurred in my life, and I experienced God in a refreshing way. It was an experience that anchored my faith and strengthened me in a way that words fail me when I try to explain. The best explanation the Lord gave me was this:
If you have ever gone skydiving, there is a pre-jump briefing before the actual jump. The goal of the pre-jump briefing is to provide you with enough knowledge for when you actually (experience) jump out of the plane. But truth be told, it is not until you have jumped out of the aircraft that you feel the exhilarating rush go through your body. An encounter that until you have experienced yourself cannot be easily explained.
My earnest prayer for you in 2022 is that you move from knowing God to experiencing who He is and that from this place of experience, your life and everything connected to it will never be the same.
Happy new year, family!