Did 2013 Make or Break you?!
As 2013 winds down, I sit here and reflect on what the year held. For most people, 2013 was a year that either strengthened them and brought them closer to God or caused them to throw their hands up and walk away. It was a year to drum up courage and to conquer fears. A year to take risks to pursue God and step into your destiny. To embrace the new and leave the old behind. You were either riding high, or scraping yourself off of the floor. Euphoric or despondent.
For me, 2013 was riddled with phrases such as: “Really?!!”; “Nice!!”; “Are you kidding me?!!”; “Is this God or the devil?!!”; “Are you serious?!!”; “This is not what I was expecting!!”; “Lord, you are going to have to show me this is you!!”; “How is that possible?!!”; “I am sorry, did I accidentally step into the twilight zone?!!”; “Will this transition ever be over?!!” There were many more..too many to list. I am sure many would wholeheartedly agree with some of these phrases and have a few choice ones to add to it.
I found my flesh wanting to revert to the old when situations got really tough. This year wasn’t about what you thought you knew, but rather what is true! God’s truth! The experiences you had with God in the past may have gotten you through last time but not this time, which caused frustration. You wondered why it didn’t work; but they were simply to serve as a reminder that God is faithful! You found yourself having to go deeper in God and wait for the Him to show you how to handle whatever you faced. You couldn’t look or plan ahead..but had to take it one day at a time. If you hadn’t allowed God to prepare you in the previous years for what was coming, you were stumbling, falling and groping around in the dark this year. Essentially, you were not equipped to handle this new year and season.
You knew God had made promises to you and the countdown had begun to the manifestations, but yet they still seemed out of reach. What was this? It was a molding, shaping, fine tuning year. A year that truly prepared you to walk into your destiny. You were stripped of the old mantles, the old ways of life, the old…and the new was put on if you allowed God to do so. Even in the tough times this year, if you stuck it out with God, you saw Him move in supernatural ways. You experienced the favor of God that is unheard of. That divine, unprecedented favor that opened doors that you knew to be impossible. It caused you to take major leaps because you got to a point that you had nothing to lose. It caused you to not care about others’ opinions, but rather stand upon what you knew to be God, no matter how bizarre it appeared to you or anyone else. It broke off strongholds because it forced you to realize the way you functioned before did not work, so you had to find a new way. It caused you to see things through God’s eyes because the natural was looking hopeless. It taught us how to push past and to push through knowing it had to be better than the present. It gave us an opportunity to regain ground once lost, to heal relationships, to try again, to persevere. It taught us that obedience is truly better than sacrifice.
As a write this now, I am looking back and thanking God! I am praising Him for the hard times; for the trials; for the challenges; the things that strengthened; for the things that pushed and forced me to see Him even in the darkest hours; I thank Him for teaching me to rise above circumstances; that all is not what it appears to be. I thank Him for using this year to refine me and to show me that I am stronger than I thought I was. I am resilient. If I can walk through the fire that has been turned up seven times hotter and come out of it not even smelling like smoke, then the confidence that God displays in me in “1 Corinthians 10:13Amplified Bible (AMP) 13 For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not a]’>[a]adjusted and b]’>[b]adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to c]’>[c]a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently” is true.
So with that said, I can now look toward the coming year with great excitement and anticipation. Looking back, I can truly appreciate where I have been because of where I am now. I am not the same person I was 12 years ago and I am not the same person that walked into 2013. I have been transformed and prepared for such a time as this. So with a renewed heart, an unwavering determination and a mind fixed on Christ, I race to 2014..jubilant..knowing what God said in Jeremiah 29:11 Amplified Bible (AMP) 11 For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
What can you do now that you never thought you would be able to do? What has God been speaking to you? What has He asked you to do? Have you allowed Him to prepare you? You might have had a rough year and doubted that God was with you. I guarantee, that if you sit still and take the time to reflect, you will discover little ways that God showed up to let you know He was there. To encourage you that you could do it…just hang in there. He is faithful and He is true. All is not lost! Rise above your circumstances, focus on Him and just wait… Isaiah 43:19 Amplified Bible (AMP)19 Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
