Have you ever asked God to give you a “word” for the year?

I hadn’t until I started meeting with a group of writers several years ago (I’m waving to you, Robin!) and a few of them had done it. Ever since, we’ve prayed together asking the Lord to show us something specific he wants each of us to focus on for the year.

I’ll be the first to admit that some years February has rolled around and I still haven’t heard anything. Maybe it’s that I’m not listening well enough (wouldn’t be the first time) or maybe God’s teaching me patience (again, not a first), but in recent days I’ve felt my focus being continually pulled back to eternity. I’ve felt the definite nudge to see situations, every aspect of my life, the decisions I make, the words I utter, in light of heaven, the believer’s forever home.

So my word(s) for 2015 are eternal perspective.

As is the case every year, I think I have an idea of what God is saying to me and what he’ll teach me in coming months. But in the same breath, I also know how wrong I’ve been about guessing this in the past. Because God is so much bigger than I am. His love is so much wider and deeper. His presence is steadfast, unshakeable. And He sees my life from beginning to end. He resides in the moment of my birth just as certainly as he resides in the moment when I’ll breath my last here on earth. He’s Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. Untethered by time.

So as 2015 unfolds, my renewed commitment is to see my life, this world and its people and events, through the lens of eternity. I want to love like Jesus loves. I want to thirst for Him in a way I haven’t before. I realize that in asking this I’m likely asking for trials and trouble. After all, those bring growth and maturity, right?

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment.
(Romans 5:3,4 NLT)

I love that. Trials lead to endurance. Endurance to character. And character to hope of salvation. Which doesn’t disappoint.

So while, yes, I’m determined to lose weight this year, to be more consistent in my Bible study, to be more disciplined, to write faster and better, to be a better wife and mother, along with numerous other goals, my continual prayer for this year will be for the Holy Spirit to give me more of an eternal perspective so that perhaps I’ll this life more to its fullest…by viewing it more clearly through the lens of the next.

Do you have a word for 2015? Is this concept new to you?

I know this runs more toward the personal, but I so look forward to you sharing.

Much love,

Tammy

To Whisper Her Name 
$1.99 e-book