But here we are at the end of 2019, and I can see it. I can see why He was nudging me (not so gently) to this word. Sometime I look at these words as something God has spoken over me and then He'll just sprinkle that over my life for the next year. What I've learned this year, and what I'm so clearly hearing him tell me right here in the busiest month we've seemed to have all year with some of the least amount of sleep we've gotten...you have to FIGHT for the rest.
Here's the thing, what God has been impressing on me over the last few months, RESTING is a command from the Lord. In one of my bible studies this semester, I overheard someone say, "Why as Christians do we follow 9 commands as LAW, but look at the 10th as a good suggestion?" It was like a dagger to the heart. In that moment, I got it, and nothing has been the same sense. (Also, have you noticed those commands... A whole lot of "DON'T do that" and very little "DO this..." and the fact that the majority of them are quick snippets but keeping the Sabbath holy is three lengthy, detailed verses long.)
I think I was fighting for rest in my own hands most of the year, and then avoiding rest when I felt like I had too much on my plate for the other part of the year, but as we close out this year and jump in to the next, I'll be focusing on submitting to the Father in this area, following Him in obedience to make rest a normal rhythm of my life.
I felt like I was going to take REST with me in to 2020 as my word for the year again, but then I noticed how God was building on this concept in my life. I will definitely continue to focus on this area and be attentive to how God is calling me to rest, and I have a few resources I'm going to be studying on this spiritual discipline, but I'm adding another layer as well.
In my time of resting, I took a break from social media. (It was glorious, by the way!) During that time, I made an effort to clean up my social media accounts, phone notifications, and email subscriptions so that I wasn't WASTING so much time on my phone. This idea of WASTE kept coming to mind and I could sense God was at work in my life again. As I became more aware of his tugging on my heart in this area, I could see so many ways that I was wasting time in my every day life. Corrie ten Boom said "if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy." SIN and BUSYNESS have the same effect on us, they cut us off from our connection to God, other people, even ourselves.
I knew this was an area I wanted to focus on for 2020, but I couldn't use WASTE as my "word". That's sort of the opposite of the point of having a word for the year. As I began to research and look into the word, I decided to take a look at the OPPOSITE of waste, and that's when I heard God speak CULTIVATE over my life.
Waste: to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander; to fail or neglect to use; to expend carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose
Opposites of waste: conserve, flourish (which I also love!), useful, cultivated
Cultivate: to nurture and help grow
Rather than wasting my time this year, my prayer is that I will grow in christ-likeness through cultivation (and rest...), cultivating spiritual growth and maturity.
No comments:
Post a Comment