One Word 2015

This is my fourth New Year of no resolutions, but with One Word that I work to live out in my year.  This year feels a little different though.  For the first three years of doing this, as I prayed and felt God lead me to “my word”, I embraced it with excitement.  Yes, those words stretched me, made me live intentionally to accomplish them and challenged me.  But they also excited me and never gave me pause.  This year’s does because I like a plan.  I like the known.  I like routine.

But God began speaking this word to my spirit through the last couple of weeks of the year and has continually confirmed it.  Finally through Scripture:

“I am about to do something NEW.  It is beginning to happen even now.  Don’t you see it coming? I am going to make a way for you to go through the desert. I will make streams of water in the dry and empty land.” Isaiah 43:19

NEW.  That’s the word of 2015.  I don’t know what that means right now.  But in my spirit, I’m ready for NEW.  There are some obvious things that go with NEW.  It’s a new year with new possibilities and new chances and a new start.  It’s a new day…every day…to live out Jesus in my life, with my family and with my friends.  But there’s a feeling in my spirit that we have new seasons upon us.  The planning-likes-to-know-details part of me struggles with embracing that.  My mind struggles with it.  My spirit is at peace.

My spirit is at peace.

Any time there is “new” there is change.  And change is something that challenges me.  But “new” is Jesus at work and beyond all else, I want Jesus at work.  The desert? It doesn’t sound fun. But He promises me a way through.  He promises me a stream of water.  That means that no matter what the “new” is, God has gone before me.  He is at work.  His peace is greater than any desert place.  And his streams of water satisfy more than any efforts to secure plans on my own.

So this year, I’ll embrace NEW.  And when NEW means change, I’ll trust the heart of my Father that what He’s doing is greater than anything I could do on my own.  NEW.  All things NEW.