Excitement. Anticipation. Expectation. A breath of fresh air. My skin is tingling and my heart is beating twice as fast as it should; my feet want to dance and my arms want to lift to the heavens. This has been my state of existence for several days - this is 2012. I can feel God moving within me and around me. There is a passion in my heart and a stirring in my spirit - He wants to move and this time. . .this time, it's going to be big. When I close my eyes, I see the captive set free - chains being broken and barred gates opened; I see mourners get up and dance and those once in rags are now clothed in righteousness; I see the hungry fed, the sick healed, the dead raised and the tormented delivered. For He is raising up an army - those who won't compromise, won't back down, won't grow weary or faint-hearted. There is a remnant who rise up and call Him blessed, who deem Him worthy of even their final life's breath. And it is through these that He will move mightily.
As I look back over 2011, I am in awe of what the Lord has done. This is a year that I will always look back upon with gratitude and fondness. It was a year of fulfilled promises. I have realized in a fresh way how the Lord has gone before me into every place and every situation for as far back as I can remember. His hand of protection has been upon me when I needed it, when I didn't think I did, and even when I didn't realize/acknowledge that He was there. By His grace alone, I went from over $10,000 in student loans in January to a mere $1,600 in less than seven months. By His grace, I (finally!) took a short term missions trip to Uganda, Africa. By His grace, I was the only member on my team to remain healthy for the entire two weeks - a marvelous blessing as I resigned from my job right before I left and had no health insurance! By His grace and provision, I was offered a job (in an area with a 21% unemployment rate) and that job was held for me for a month as I took a season to rest in the Lord. By His grace, I received the emotional healing I so desperately needed and have begun to build a relationship with my dad where (in my opinion) none existed. By His grace, I am more content now than I had been in the past 3.5 years. He knows my heart, He sees my passions and He is faithful to complete the work that He has started in me.
2011 marked the beginning of a chapter of my life that I had waited 3 years to get to. The waiting is over. . .it's time to move; time to plow; time to press forward. My dreams are big, but my God is bigger. My heart burns with passion, but the flame in His is greater. I hold fast to those things that He has whispered to me. I expect great things in 2012, knowing He has a way of going above and beyond all that we could ask or imagine.
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