My hope for you this past year is that you would find your heart and mind a little more steady and secure in Christ Jesus.
I hope that your secure place is found in knowing that we have a God who can move mountains when we trust Him to do so.
I pray that the Salty, Sweet Collective has encouraged you as you face the daily task and adventures.
I want to encourage you to do something before you jump into resolutions or dreams for the new year.
I want to encourage you to first reflect on the past year. To do a little exercise of reflection.
See where you have fought the good fight and seen the goodness of the Lord for yourself. But also look and see where you could have sought Him more or where you could have loved more in the fullness of Truth and Grace.
When we look back we can easily say what worked and what didn’t. What choices we made that lead us to this moment, what hard things we walked through, or what great things happened this past year but I want us to look at what happened this year that will last for eternity. What impacted lives and enriched ours. I want us to determine to measure our success on what God says is good and right.
As you reflect on the past year find comfort in knowing we could all find places where we could do better and that when we find those places, may we not become discouraged. But instead find these places and know this is the place where growth can happen. This is the humbleness that the Lord is close to. The type of humbleness that realizes growth is a good thing and excuses or declaring defeat is not an option.
But instead let failure or shortcomings give room to excitement. Excitement for new ways to love our Jesus more the coming year.
We need to know these areas so that we can see where we could stand to be more like Jesus.
We became believers by first realizing our sins, failures, and shortcomings and believing that Jesus is the way to forgiveness, restoration, and reconciliation. May we not forget that when we long to live for Him We may find that it is hard sometimes. And just like when we first believed, we need to look to Jesus for The Way.
Living a Salty, Sweet life is realizing the truth is we fail or come short of many things that we would like to be great at or give our best to, But God gives grace to us through Jesus and gives the ability to not stay in that state but to grow in the power of the Holy Spirit. We must want to grow in order to grow.
Let’s take this time to reflect and to be encouraged in seeing the things that will last for eternity from 2019. So that the proper growth can happen in 2020.
Here’s a short list to get you started.
You can save it, print it, and share it.
Please remember this is to encourage you to live in the fullness of Truth and Grace and find a place that your heart is steadfast and secure.
If you liked this list ~ Look for a ”Salty, Sweet Bucks list” in tomorrows blog post.