I hope you’re ready for a brand new year, I know I am! I’m welcoming this new year with a giant welcome banner myself. For many people I've talked to, last year was a year of immense growth. I did a lot of reflection and spent time asking the Lord what He wants this year to be. I would encourage you to do the same!
We’ve been in a season of rest but, we've also endured a challenging end of the year and holidays with multiple sicknesses. I’ve felt the beckoning from the Lord to rest — just not in the way I was expecting. He wanted a complete halt, life comes to a stop, rest. I realized, I was really good at pockets of resting but to do so without an end date or time in mind? That left me asking when I would pick up again, and it required a new level of trust in God. So after catching the flu for the second time in two months, I succumbed to the sickness and surrendered that it was allowing me to completely halt and just be. To be at home and enjoy doing very, very little because it was literally all I could do.
Sometimes God does things to get our attention differently. This time, I needed to be hit over the head with a metaphorical stick to see that Gods ways are indeed far higher and wiser than mine. That there was something meant for my good wrapped inside of something that from the surface, looked bad. It was a fresh reminder that He absolutely can be trusted, especially when I don't understand.
So we’ve entered in, the new year is here. As I’ve slow walked in, I’ve learned that it feels really good to not feel like I have to dance in. I can take small strides as the Holy Spirit leads. I’ll take my time with a new recognition that sometimes we must rest to persevere, and that rest can take on multiple forms. So here’s to walking really slow into 2025 with no expectations, what feels like an entire previous year of growth under my belt and feeling like I was beat like a piñata by a thousand bats! But soon i’ll be ready to dance again and I’ll go at the pace of grace God gives.
Exodus 33:14 “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I pray that all of us would have a year full of Gods presence! A beautiful year of rest, His easy yoke and light burdens.
I’ve felt that God wanted me to share this scripture for those of us that endured so much throughout 2024: Psalms 90:25 “Let there be gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good.” He will restore the hard year. He’ll redeem the hardships! To restore means to replace. To redeem means to compensate. All the hard things 2024 brought will be replaced and compensated for!! Have a blessed New Year!

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