Renewal

I love the hope and expectation that comes with a new year! Not only is it a new year, but it’s a new decade. How exciting to think of all that may happen over the next ten years!

I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions, but each year I have a word or phrase that God gives me to learn more about, press into, and grow from.

Last year, as you know, was the phrase “Say yes to the good portion of relationship.”  And I thought this year’s was going to be “Be Still”, because He’s taught me a lot about stillness with my prolonged health issues.  I even journaled this right before Christmas…

But “Be Still” didn’t seem quite right for what I want, and need, in this new year.  

I plan to carry “stillness” into this new year because my health still requires that I do, and I have enjoyed the grace of just being still.  (Plus, I plan to read up on some Sabbathing books this year!) But, while continuing to “Be Still”, I need some new things to happen in my life. 

I need restoration and healing in my body.  I need physical reNEWal!  

I need a transformation of my mind, and thoughts of self-judgment, self-deprivation, and sometimes, self-loathing.  I need mental reNEWal!

I need to learn to see myself through God’s eyes and love myself the way He does.  I need spiritual reNEWal!

As I said, “Happy New Year!” to my family at the stroke of midnight this year, I heard the word reNEWal.  And as I heard it, I saw it, just like that “reNEWal”.  The word “new” all big, and bold, and brilliant, right in the middle of the word renewal. 

As I heard and saw that word, reNEWal, I knew God was telling me that I could expect two things from that one word. 

I am confident that He will make me NEW in body, mind, and spirit, in His likeness, as he renews me physically, mentally, and spiritually!

All biblical references are ESV unless otherwise noted.