One Word Challenge

In the past I had made it a practice to create a list of goals at the beginning of every new year. I found it helpful and focusing. Maybe you have too. By the end of the year, some of the goals were completed while others were still hanging out there and got transferred to the goal list for the next year. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it helped me to start the year purposefully. Having the goals written down on an index card used as a bookmark in my journal kept them before me throughout the year and helped me to refocus when necessary. I appreciated being able to review the card at the end of the year and see some progress. 

A few years ago I came across a devotion in the YouVersion Bible app that challenged readers to choose one word to focus on rather than create a list of goals. The idea intrigued me, so I downloaded the guide and began the prayerful process of choosing one word to focus on. The objective was to allow God to show me an area I needed to grow in and focus on that through my one word. 

My one word for that year was “value.” I had struggled with feeling valued and valuing my own thoughts, opinions and contributions. So, along with the verses I had picked up in our church New Year’s service, I took an index card wrote VALUE at the top, my New Year’s Scripture references below that, and crafted some goals built around the word VALUE. Some examples: I will value relationships. I will value my own voice. You get the idea? As before I kept that index card as a bookmark in my Bible to remind me. But my phone’s reminder feature was also a great way to keep the word “value” in front of my eyes on a daily basis. 

At the end of the year, I could look back and see tangible growth in this area of my life. Growing in VALUE had helped me grow in stepping forward in God’s plan for me. I accomplished tasks. No doubt about that. But the inner growth was much more satisfying. I have continued this practice in the years since and have appreciated the focus and growth as a result. 

Sound like something you’d like to try? Let me give you some suggestions to get you started. Here’s a snippet of Scripture  full of words that might be worth your focus for the year: 

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12-14

Do you need to focus on an identity statement? How about “chosen” or “holy” or “loved”? That’s who these verse say you are. Struggling with a relationship at home or work or church? You could focus on “compassion”,”kindness”, “humility”, “gentleness” or “patience.” Maybe your word is “forgiveness” or “forgiven” or “love” or “unity.”  

Whatever word you choose, go through the process with God. Our ultimate goal is to let Him do His work IN us as well as through us. Will you pick up the challenge? Let me know!

Key thought: God wants to do His work IN us not just through us.

A Scripture to consider: 

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3: 12-14

A YES challenge: Choose one word to focus on for 2018 and see what God does in your life. 

Prayer: 

Lord, You know me inside and out. You know where I most need to grow and what I need to focus on for this year. Task goals have some merit, but I want a deeper goal. I want to grow in my character. I want to grow more like You and to become all that You planned for me. I give this year to You. Do Your work in me not just through me. Amen. 

Some resources: 

YouVersion (Bible.com) 

Lots more info than I used at http://getoneword.com/

YES Lessons From Mary: Satisfaction vs. Fulfillment

What is it that we want in life? What is it that you want? I think at our core we each want a feeling of destiny and purpose. We want to end our lives with a sense of fulfillment, that we have accomplished what we were created for.  The truth is that, even though that is what we want, we aren’t sure how to achieve it and we often settle for less. Why is that? We mistake satisfaction for fulfillment. 

To be satisfied is to “fulfill the needs, expectations, desires or demands of (a person).” Think of Mary. As a young, obedient Jewish girl she was fulfilling the expectations and desires of those around her, her parents, her community.. She knew the demands. She knew what was expected of her. She knew what she thought God expected of her and her life was built around fulfilling those expectations. She was satisfied, perhaps even content, “in a state of peaceful happiness,” Doesn’t that all sound good? Don’t you and I also want to feel satisfied and content? Do we?

For me, I was satisfied and content. I knew that I was fulfilling the expectations, desires and demands of those around me, of the Christian culture that I was a part of, of my family, my husband, even my own expectations. I was content being a stay-at-home mom of small children helping my husband in ministry. I was satisfied and content, but I didn’t have a sense of destiny and purpose. I wasn’t fulfilled. To be fulfilled is to be “satisfied or happy because of fully developing one’s abilities or character.”  I always knew that there must be more for me. I knew that I was not fully developing my abilities or character, but I didn’t know what that would look like or how to get there. I was satisfied and content, so like Mary, I didn’t go looking for anything else. Until something happened. 

What happened to Mary? An angel came to see her and tell her what God wanted from her and she said YES. But she didn’t say yes once. She said it multiple times along her journey and ended up going places and experiencing things she never would have seen if she had remained a satisfied and content obedient Jewish girl. The trajectory of her journey altered with her YES and took her past the cross into the Upper Room through Pentecost and into history. We know her name and look to her example because she said YES and fully developed her abilities and her character. She lived a fulfilled life. 

Certainly, my story is not so dramatic. No angels, but a continuing sense of calling, of God speaking to me, calling me to pursue ministry credentials, calling me to more. It didn’t make sense to my expectations. It was outside my area of comfort. I was satisfied and content, yet I knew that if I didn’t say YES I would be missing something that God had for me.. So, I gave him my YES and stumbled forward. 

Like Mary, my life has never been the same. I have found myself places I never expected to go and done things I never expected to do. I have found myself participating in the purposes of God on the earth and have had the joy of knowing that I am fulfilling my unique mission. Before my YES I was satisfied, even content. But as a result of my YES I find myself living a fulfilled life. It’s not easy. I am constantly challenged to give God another YES, just as Mary was, but every YES brings me closer to fully developing my abilities, and more importantly, my character. I wouldn’t go back to satisfied and content. I’ll take fulfilled and keep giving God my YES. 

What about you?

Key Thought: Satisfied is not fulfilled. 

A Scripture to Consider: 

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.  ‭Psalms‬ ‭138:8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

A YES Challenge: Where are you satisfied and content? What might you need to do in order to move toward fulfillment?

Prayer: 

Lord, help me not to settle for satisfied, for fulfilling the expectations of others or myself. Help me to move toward fulfillment, to fully develop the abilities You have given me and to allow You to shape my character. Help me to live my unique mission. Amen. 

YES Lessons from Mary: Waiting Is Worth It

Don’t you hate waiting? I don’t know anyone who likes to wait. Some of us seem to do it better than others, but inside we all have the same struggles. We try to imagine outcomes and want to figure out ways to end the misery of uncertainty with resolution.  We fill our time and our minds with all sorts of distractions, but in the end we know that we are helpless to resolve what only God with time can tie up in a neat bow. 

Mary did a lot of waiting in her lifetime. Think about it! We've become so comfortable with the stories in the Bible that we forget that the people in them were living the events like we do, unclear of the end. First, she received the message from Gabriel that she would be the mother of God’s son and then had to wait to confirm everything. Luke tells us that Mary's next action after receiving the message was to go see Elizabeth, presumably to confirm that she was, indeed, pregnant, as the angel had told Mary(Luke 1:36,39). Elizabeth’s confirmed pregnancy would be proof that Mary hadn't just had a weird dream. Elizabeth’s pregnancy would confirm her own, but it took time to get there and she most likely didn’t have any symptoms of pregnancy at the outset. Perhaps that is why she remained with Elizabeth for three months. By the time she got there she may have begun to experience the fatigue and morning sickness that is part of the first trimester. Anyone who has been pregnant knows that once the symptoms begin, it can be pretty rough for a while. Walking was the primary method of transportation and it's about 70 miles from Nazareth to Jerusalem. Mary most likely would not have been up to the return trip immediately! The wait that was part of her journey had brought confirmation to what she had been told. Circumstances confirmed the angel’s words and brought an end to the first wait. But then she had to wait again. She had to wait to tell Joseph. 

That waiting must have been excruciating. It would be in Joseph’s power to crush her. He could reject her and make her life miserable, proclaim her as an adulterer, humiliate her before the whole village. How well did she know him? Did she know the righteousness of his character that would desire to treat her with kindness? Matthew says that when Joseph knew Mary was pregnant his plan was to divorce her quietly (Matthew 1:19). He didn’t want to publicly humiliate her. But did Mary expect that? 

You and I have been in those waiting times. Sometimes the waiting is worse than the actual event, right? Our minds play out all the possible outcomes. Even if we think things might go a certain way, we have no way of being absolutely certain. Take another look at the nativity story and consider that Mary (and Joseph) may have experienced exactly the same emotional upheaval, the misery of uncertainty  Regardless of what Mary expected, she still had to wait and wonder what Joseph would actually do. 

After Jesus was born there was a different kind of waiting. Now she lived her everyday life and waited for all that had been spoken about this child to come to pass. When it did, was it what she had expected?  She had to wait and watch him die, not knowing that this waiting would bring him back in three days. After he died there was waiting to see what life would be like without him, but then…he arose! Where was she when she heard that news? How long did she have to wait to see it with her own eyes? And then…what would happen next?

We don't know quite when it happened, but Mary became a committed believer. We know she obeyed the instruction given to all the disciples and was present among those who were in the Upper Room waiting again, this time for the promised Holy Spirit. At the end of Mary's waiting life she experienced what her first response, "May your word to me be fulfilled" (Luke 1:38 NLT),  cleared the path for, an eternity of fulfilled promises.  

What are you waiting for right now? I can't tell you how long you will wait or what challenges will be part of the process, but I can tell you that it will be worth it. Really! I think that Mary would agree. 

Key thought: Waiting is worth it. 

A Scripture to Consider: 

For no matter how many promises God has made, the are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the  "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.  2 Corinthians 1:20

A YES challenge: Where are you experiencing the misery of uncertainty? How can you give God your YES while you wait for Him?

Prayer:

Lord, I don't know how all of this is going to turn out. I really hate this not knowing! Help me to remember that You will fulfill your promises to me and to all who call on Your name. Help me to believe that it really will be worth it. Amen.