This is God’s continual reminder from Isaiah 41:10 that is forever showing up all over the place and where I want our MINDSET FOR 2023: KNOWING THAT NO MATTER WHAT WE FACE, OUR HELP COMES FROM THE ALMIGHTY GOD HIMSELF. That’s faith, baby! As we show up in the physical realm, doing our best, God is at work in the spiritual realm, tweaking and tackling situations on our behalf. “DO NOT FEAR, I WILL HELP YOU” Wink! Wink!
I’m not going to lie to you, 2022 has been an extremely rough year, but it left me with some great lessons to share with you. Like I can’t get over how I went all crazy in a post yesterday writing about how God showed up to reveal His Presence with a friend and me through this verse:
“Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives. – 1 Peter 3:1
So, it’s a little fun thing I do with God, every day asking Him what He has to say to me in this book of over 300 pages of Bible verses. After writing that post about how this was the very first verse God took me to in that book day before yesterday, about four hours later, I remembered that I didn’t ask God what He had to say to me that day through it. Can you believe that was the very first verse AGAIN I opened to when asking God what He had to say to me through it? It was even quoted on an entirely different page! It lined up too perfectly to be coincident. I freaked out again, sending it to my friend with this critical reminder I took from it: “THIS AGAIN IS GOD LETTING US KNOW HE IS WITH US.”
And this awareness that God’s invisible Presence is always with us is the firm foundation on where I want us to build our lives. In every moment, we have access to God. His wisdom, love, favor, strategies, guidance, protection, help, and support. It’s just for Him to become the center of every move we make. Even when He asks difficult things of us, we can do everything by His strength within us. Doing everything for the glory of God!
But God revealing His Presence to us, continually showing up for us, and letting us know how much He loves us is another BIG lesson of 2022. His deep, steadfast, and unconditional love and approval of us, no matter our mistakes and failings, is what I want us to take into 2023. Even at our lowest, He is there to help us get back up and KEEP GOING. And this unconditional love, mercy, and forgiveness that He shows us is where He wants us to be with ourselves and others. Nobody’s perfect! GOD IS LOVE, and I want us all to reflect His love in the world. Let’s use all the negativity and evil in the world as our motivation to spread even more goodness and love on His behalf. So help us God. See ya in 2023!!!