For a few years, I have taken the advice of Debbie Stuart and prayed that the Lord would give me a word for the year. The word which He gives you is a word that will amazingly appear in places you would least expect and you know in your heart that the word you are given is for a reason. For 2017 my word was Tenacity. I had begun to pray and ask the Lord what word He had for me for 2017. One morning in early December I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and tenacity was the word that was in my mind. I had to go look it up because I truly never remembered using it ever, nor did I know what it really meant. When I looked it up, I discovered that it meant “learning to be content with circumstances and to persevere, going forward. For the next few mornings I would wake up thinking that word. Looking back over 2017, I know why that word was the word that I was suppose to study, to take to heart and to apply to my life. 2017 came with some struggles of circumstances which I had never thought would come across my life. God was faithful and provided His grace and sufficiency to me in areas that I needed to grow up, not only spiritually, but mentally. Fast forward to 2018.
Reading an email from a friend who was talking about what she felt the Lord had given her as her word for 2018, I suddenly realized that I had not even begun to think about praying for this year’s word. So I quickly began to pray and ask the Lord what word He had for me this year. Past years’ words for me have been,
“tenacity” “restore” “serve”. So when I was praying, I expected my word to be something along those lines. But once again, on December 6th I woke up thinking about the word “kindness”. I thought about that and wondered why that word was on my mind. But again the next day, “kindness” would just pop into my mind. IT was then that I begin to ask the Lord if that was indeed my word. On December 8th, I woke up and came into the living room and opened up my devotion book as I do each morning. As I opened up Streams in the Desert for December 8th, this was the scripture at the top of the devotion, “Colossians 3:12, Put on as the elect of God, kindness.”
It was the story of an old man who went around town who carried a can of oil everywhere he went, and if he passed through a door that squeaked, he poured a little oil on the hinges. Anyplace he went that needed a touch of oil to stop squeaking or lubricating, making the hard places easier for those who came after him, he oiled them. The devotion went on to say:
“Have you your own can of oil with you? Be ready with your oil of helpfulness in the early morning to the one nearest you. (oh boy, that meant that I had to be continually “kind” to my husband for a year,) It may lubricate the whole day for him. The oil of good cheer to the downhearted one-oh how much it may mean…our lives touch others but once, perhaps, on the road of life; and then, mayhap, our ways diverge, never to meet again.
It ended with “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love.” Romans 12:10
About an hour after reading this, a dear friend from California texted me with this message;
“thought of you this morning as I was reading Streams in the Desert……….hope you have a blessed day” She had never written to me about a devotion before and here she was writing about the same one I had just read.
Then on December 13th, a blog I read from time to time called Two Chums popped up in my email. For “some” reason, I opened it that morning and this was what it opened with, “above all else, be kind”. It was at this point that i quit asking God for more confirmation and declared that my word for 2018 is Kindness. I don’t know why yet and I don’t know what circumstances will be in my life this year. Sometimes it might be hard to fall on the promises of God that “I can do all things with God’s strength” and “nothing is impossible with God” But I can rest assured that “my God will supply all my needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus”, even His strength to help me show kindness to everyone, no matter what!
If you have never ask God to give you a word, begin to pray about that. It will be amazing how He will reveal it to you and how He will use it for your spiritual growth. Also there is a book called “My One Word” by Mike Ashcroft.
amazon for $9.98
Chocolate Castles as wel 