2020. I have seen so many posts asking “what is your word for this year?” It really has gotten me thinking and asking God what this year holds. So, 2020, what do you hold? Do you hold cities? Do you hold countries? Do you hold new friends? Do you hold new experiences? 2020, what is my word?
To start this off I just want to lay down some scripture. In Jeremiah 33:3 the Lord speaks to Jeremiah about running to Him, seeking Him, and intentionally calling out to Him.
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 NIV
Something that the Lord has just been laying heavily on my heart this past week is to completely and utterly seek Him in every day, every decision, every brokenness, every joy, every moment. So to actually state what my word or I guess statement for 2020 would be, I would say it is “seek His kingdom.”
To me “seeking His kingdom” doesn’t just mean “hey God something bad just happened. Please help me.” or “hey God I have to make a big decision. Reveal to me what the right choice is.” Seeking His kingdom means using every moment of my day to seek Him and let Him control my every feeling, emotion, reaction, or decision. My goal by the end of 2020 is to be able to see in myself someone who leans on the Lord consistently and runs to the father every time (s/o to Cody Carnes and his bop of a worship song). Something that I’ve been seeing happen a lot in my life recently since the Lord has laid this on my heart is how much He is in the works for my future. He has begun to start new futures, open new paths, wrestle my heart in new ways. This past week for the first time in a long time I have had so much genuine joy and yes, it is weird because if i’m being honest i’m not used to it but I am LOVING IT. When we allow God to work in our hearts, in our mediocre days, or in our defeat He WILL do great things.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 NIV
If you expect God to fix every problem and give you an amazing life but you do not seek Him, you will get nowhere. I recently got back from Passion conference and as many of you know, my favorite speaker is Louie Giglio. I was looking forward to hearing him the most and his message ended up impacting me the most, as I expected. In his message he really spoke a lot about how we get so comfortable in our stories of defeat that we don’t leave them. We find them comfy because as long as we are in brokenness we think “hey, I can’t do ministry or share Jesus because I am in this state.” But what we need to be doing is allowing Christ to change that story of defeat to a story of victory in Him. We can’t do this without the effort. For Christ to begin turning the pages we want Him to turn in our lives, we have to begin turning pages in His word. We have to seek Him with utter intentionality. We HAVE to put in our side of the work for His side of the work to start affecting us. If we allow Him to, He can turn our stories of defeat to stories of victory. He can reveal our purpose to us through intentional seeking. He can turn our pages as soon as we turn His pages. He can stir the winds of change as soon as we are open to allowing that change to happen.
We must stop relying on ourselves or those around us and start relying 100% on our King, Christ Jesus. Trust me, as soon as you do, those winds of change will start blowing and the voice of God will start roaring through us.
“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:12-14 NIV
“Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.” Psalms 24:6 NIV
