For those of you like me, who limped across the finish line of 2018, welcome to your new year. Welcome to a fresh start, a blank slate, a year filled with new mercies, new possibilities and a mighty mission for you to walk in. I believe God has already gone before us, paving the way for wonderful and extraordinary things for us this year. He can take our pain and turn it into purpose. Turn our heartache into our hustle, our grief into growth.
This is our year.
This is our year to stop being a victim and start being the victor. I hate the word, if I’m being honest. Victim. Yet for some of us - many of us - it’s the only word fitting. It’s our reality. Acknowledging our victim status is the first step in acknowledging the victory God has over that same status.
We might be victims of other people’s poor choices, but we don’t have to stay here, sweet friend. God has entrusted us with this part of our story not because He didn’t want to save us from our pain, but because He wants to USE OUR PAIN to point to Him. What a tremendous honor and responsibility for us as we walk toward healing. To choose victory so our healing points to the One who grants victory.
This is our year.
We claim this first day of 2019, that God has gone before us preparing unique and good works for us to walk in. We claim today, that He will never leave us or forsake us, no matter what 2019 has in store. That He is exactly who He says He is - good, faithful, powerful, true. And because of that - because of Him - we can be mighty warrior women, navigating the often treacherous road ahead. We can be courageous because He tells us He has us. We can be strong because the Holy Spirit gives us strength. We can be compassionate, gentle, kind because Jesus gave us that example. We can be forgivers because we have been so greatly forgiven. We can be merciful because He is mighty. We can.
This is our year.
This is the year to turn our pain into His purpose. To let God take us on mission wherever He pleases. To stop shoving things in the back of our mind or the depths of our heart, but instead bring it to the surface. This is the year we allow the Spirit of our ever loving and crazy wonderful God to wash over the darkness bringing it all to light. This is that year, my dear friend. The year for light. The year for love. The year for hope.
This is our year.
Our year to own who we are instead of who we wish we were. Our year to claim our stories, be diligent in mission and to seek the Truth of the path God is setting us on. The year we stop hoping for different circumstances, pasts and people, but instead start loving others from a place only Jesus came to save. That we stop pointing out sin and start identifying hurting souls. The year we talk to our neighbors, love the hard hearted and cultivate deep relationships with people ‘other’ than us. The year we let go of expectations and instead grab a hold of the experiences God is granting to us every. single. day.
THIS is our year. This is our future. And friend, we are here.
Let’s set out together to consistently live 2019 with intention, purpose, hope and healing.May we shout everything God has done and is doing for us - not that we are perfect, perfectly healed or perfectly walking. But that HE is perfect and is FOR US. He is FOR YOU. He is FOR this year! No matter what pain, what heartache, what past we have - God is good, He is real and He is ready for this year because He has seen it.
This is our year. Your year. My year. Every single last crazy, chaotic, painful, beautiful, broken and wonderful minute of it.
So come on, girl, let’s show up for it.