Happy New Year 2015!
Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a safe and merry New Year. I hope that your new year will be full of hope and happiness.
Revelations 21:5 says, “And the One seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new!’ and He said, ‘Write this down, because these words are faithful and true.’ ”
How many of you set New Year Resolutions? I could see the benefit. Some people are planners and goal setters and want to know what they have to look forward to in the New Year or things to resolve in the New Year.
If you do set goals or resolutions, what are they? Do you keep them? Most of the time they are to lose weight, save more money, or work something out that doesn’t seem to be going right.
I never set New Year Resolutions. There is no particular reason that I don’t; I am not afraid of not fulfilling them or letting myself down. I just don’t feel the need. Maybe it is because I am the type of person who is constantly evaluating my actions and my situations and I try to learn from everyday and “fix” things as they arise.
This year won’t be any different. I do, however, want to take the time to share with you a little about myself and my ministry for 2015.
I started writing a blog in November 2014. There are several reasons that lead me to this new adventure.
Before I decided to stay at home with my children, I was teaching in the public schools and I felt that it was a natural transition to teach at my church in any capacity. I do several ministries in my church. I am the director and a teacher of children’s church, I teach Cubbies in AWANAS, which is for preschool age children. I organize a ministry called Inspiration Corner, which sells materials for personal and outreach purposes, and I have lead a Ladies and a mixed group Bible study. I don’t do this all at once all of the time and I am by no way trying to promote all I do in the church. I love teaching and I love to study God’s Word. I find both of these things very fulfilling.
Although I felt like I was being obedient to serve in these capacities, I was struggling with doing this. I was feeling discouraged and discontent in so many ways and for so many reasons. I have, over the past couple years, struggled with finding my place where I think God wants me and in what I was doing. I have prayed for Him to close doors in my life and help me to move on to a new chapter. I felt like all I could for God was to serve in my church and that was taking a lot of time and energy and I was feeling quite discouraged. I felt confined to my service there and it was causing me to have a sour heart and quite frankly a bad attitude.
I felt lost, confused, and very frustrated. After several revolutions from prayer and reading scripture verses, as I said I am always trying to learn from situations, I was brought to a new place. You see as I have been studying more intensely over the past couple years, I have been praying for God not to just fill my head with knowledge but to fill my heart with obedience. My prayer was “teach me Lord so that I can be more obedient to you, so my life will show more evidence of your love”. After all, it all has to be about Him or like Solomon says it is like chasing the wind.
I recently went to a Women’s conference and when asked if life wasn’t going how you expected and you wanted prayer to stand, I couldn’t stand up fast enough. I wanted to serve God but I was struggling. One of the speakers read the verse from Matthew 11:28 that has instructed us to lay down all our heavy burdens and He will give us rest. I finally gave it all away. I gave it to God, I let Him have it and I felt free. All the things that I had been going through became clearer and I became more firm in my choice to serve Him.
You can check out the blog entry “Lay Down ALL Your Burdens” if you want more on this verse from Matthew.
I came home the next day and just keep processing the things I felt like God was teaching me. I had said to my friend before we left the conference, I want to be there (we were watching the conference on a simulcast). She said yes that would be fun, I said no, not at the conference, I want to be teaching like that in large capacities. I wasn’t saying this out of “I have high aspirations for myself, I have made up my mind and set a new goal”. I was saying this because I have a huge desire to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. This may sound like a lofty goal to some, but it came about very naturally and if God wants that for my life then He will make a way.
There are several things that have always seemed to come easy for me, public speaking and teaching. If God has given me these gifts, I should be using them for His purposes. There are two things I love, teaching and learning God’s Word. It only makes sense that I be doing all these things. God has given me a burning passion to teach His Word to anyone and everyone.
The day after the conference, I sat in prayer and in reading God’s Word. When my husband came home from work, I was so excited and nervous. I just started to cry. I said, “Honey, I have submitted my life’s work to God, I don’t know what that means right now or where He will lead me, but I feel I have no other option than to obey. He has promised to lead me and I have promised to follow. He knows the plans that He has for me and I am confident in His plans.”
In Jeremiah 29:11 the Lord says, “For I know the plans that I am planning concerning you, plans for prosperity and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope.”
You could also see from the verses in Revelations 21 that God wants us to tell of these words because they are faithful and true.
Check back tomorrow for more on my outlook for 2015…
Continue please…..