Happy New Year

Well, it's here.  Happy New Year.  Bye bye 2018 and hello 2019.  So I got us this morning after a wonderful evening with friends and food.  Another new year has started.  Time to take down the trees and put all the decor away for another year.  I don't focus on the material things of Christmas time, but I do love the ambiance that the lights and decorations make.  

So, I start the day with my coffee and devotional time with God.  The best time of the day.  Today, I received this devotional from John Eldrige (author of Wild At Heart) and thought it was really good.  So good, I bought the kindle version of the devotional to read over the next 365 days:

Happy New Year: A Fresh Start by John Eldredge, from his new 365-day devotional, Restoration Year

Is anything too hard for the Lord? — Genesis 18:14 January 1. A brand-new year. It’s the time of year we start thinking about making changes. This year, rather than writing a quick list of resolutions that we’ll likely forget before February, maybe we should take a different approach. This is a good time for each of us to ask ourselves, What do I want to be different this year? Sit with that for ten minutes. Let your heart surface and then… take it to Jesus in prayer. Lord, come into this. Show me the way. I will often ask God for His “theme” over my new year: Jesus, what is the theme of this year? I do this every January, and it has proven a mighty rescue many times over. Usually, Jesus says one simple thing. One year I heard, “Love.” All through the year, I found myself needing to return to the simple truth of love. Another year it was, “Restoration,” and that was the year I took a short sabbatical and sought needed restoration. Ask Jesus, What is the theme of this year, Lord? And when He speaks, write it down! Post it somewhere you will see it often. In very big letters.   A Heart for His Kingdom God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart. — Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT The thing you are made for is the renewal of all things. God has given you a heart for His Kingdom — not the wispy vagaries of a cloudy heaven, but the sharp reality of the world made new. This is one of the most important things you can know about yourself. Did you know this about yourself? When was the last time you told yourself, as you looked in the mirror in the morning, Good morning; you have a heart for the kingdom? This explains so much; it will be such an enormous help to you. It explains your anger and all of your addictions. It explains your cry for justice, and it also explains the growing hopelessness, resignation, cynicism, and defeat. If you will listen with kindness and compassion to your own soul, you will hear the echoes of a hope so precious you can barely put words to it, a wild hope you can hardly bear to embrace. God put it there. He also breathed the corresponding promise into the earth; it is the whisper that keeps coming to you in moments of golden goodness. But of course, the secret to your unhappiness and the answer to the agony of the earth are one and the same — you are longing for the Kingdom of God. You are aching for God’s promise of the restoration of all things. Jesus — restore my hope this year. Renew my hope that You are going to renew all things, including my life. Excerpted with permission from Restoration Year by John Eldredge, copyright John Eldredge. I thought it was a really good devotional.  I started to write in my journal, asking God what I should focus on more this year.  The word that popped into my head was "pray".  I know that my prayer life is weak and I struggle with it, so I figured that the word made sense.  Then the mind starts to interfere....did you really hear that from God?  Maybe there is something more you should work on.  What else could it be.  So, like a lot of people, confirmation goes a long way!  The next devotional I opened was from Proverbs 31 ministries (a great ministry for women), and I started to read it.  Well, I received my confirmation!  Check it out: How to Prioritize Prayer in Your Crazy Busy Life AMY CARROLL January 1, 2019     “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Colossians 4:2 (NIV) Although I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions, I’ve come to adore adopting a single word each year to guide me toward spiritual growth. Last January as I sought God for my new word, I sensed Him leading me to the word “pray.” Terror is too mild a word to describe the way I felt about that particular directive. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve made daily prayer a practice for decades, but I knew it was still a weak link in my spiritual life. Bible study is one of my great loves, and I adore getting out to serve. But during my prayer times, my mind wanders, my faith wavers and I never feel as if I cover all the needs. Guilt and a sense of falling short typically describe my prayer life. Have you struggled with prayer too? If you’re like me, maybe you know prayer is important, but it’s hard to wrap your mind around such a powerful, invisible force. It’s challenging to prioritize time for something so intangible with results that demand waiting. As I surrendered and embraced “pray” with a trembling heart at the beginning of 2018, I pictured success as reading stacks of books from the 1700s. I imagined developing callouses on my knees from hours on them in the dark of early morning. But those images left me resistant instead of motivated. Truthfully, I couldn’t fathom fitting those assignments into my current schedule. Surely this was going to be the worst word-of-the-year ever. I’m excited to report that’s not how God worked at all. Yes, He challenged me to grow in ways that required intention. He asked me to set more time aside for prayer, but He brought some beautiful, simple tools into my life that have allowed me to find peace and even joy in prayer. God directed me to: Instagram, where I found a pre-prayer journal routine that settles my thoughts and quiets my mind. A book that led me to pray one God-inspired verse for each of my sons every day. A calendar with daily out-of-the-box prompts that leads me to pray for areas I wouldn’t have thought to cover. A friend who encouraged me to set reminders throughout the day on my phone to pray for people I want to intercede for every week. A group in the First 5 app where I write out my prayers based on that day’s Scripture. A mentor who modeled on-the-spot prayer for those with a request: the best guarantee for follow-through instead of forgetting. Voila! Guilt free. In a gentle yet persistent way, God brought Colossians 4:2 alive in my life in 2018: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Now my one word “pray” is an invitation for ongoing conversation with God.  As a rule-follower and reforming perfectionist, I used to look for formulas and how-to’s. Now, instead of limiting myself to a set number of minutes of prayer in a prescribed routine, the simple tools above allow prayer to permeate my thoughts. They’ve created a watchfulness in me that lasts throughout the day. I’m constantly looking for opportunities to pray, which leads to true devotion to the practice and thankfulness as I watch God at work. There are so many moments that beg for prayer! If you long for talk with God that changes things, prayer is not as hard as you might think. Ask Him to send some simple tools your way, and let the dialogue begin. Lord, I want to develop devotion to prayer because I long for a never-ending conversation with You. Please teach me to pray by showing me truths in Your Word and giving me the determination to use the tools You send my way. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. So, if I had any doubts in my mind of what I should be focussing on this year, they are gone.  I have said this about other things in my life, "I need to be more intentional", so that is what I will be working at.  More intentional in my prayer life.  If I can put my effort into being a good golfer, then I can do the same in my prayer life. Priorities...it all comes down to that.  I have to be more intentional with my priorities and my prayer life.  After all, God is so worth it.  I just thank Him that, even though I am not where I should be, I am far from where I used to be and that, my friends, is a very good thing! Happy New Year.  What is God asking of You this coming year?  If you don't know...have a sit and listen for Him and He will tell you!