What a year. I’m ready for 2021, and I’m sure you are, too. Despite the prevailing cultural narrative, I don’t think 2020 was a bad year. I think it was a learning year. A growing year. A refining year. After all, we can’t have gold without first melting down and refining dross—a worthless, impure metal.
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Look throughout the Bible and you’ll find many years, decades even, of struggle for God’s people. Think of the great flood, the 40 years the Israelites spend in the wilderness, and the 400 years of God’s silence between Malachi’s prophecy and Jesus’ birth. Difficult years are nothing new. And difficulty isn’t always bad.
My word for the past year was joy. I obviously had no idea what was going to come in the next 12 months, but God did. God knew we would face a global pandemic. He knew our way of life would completely change and perhaps never be the same.
On a personal level, God knew that I would use 2020 to (mostly) take a break from writing. He knew I would focus on my health and resting whenever possible. He knew I would have a falling out with one of my best friends and struggle to make friends here in Colorado. He knew we would have car issues and various anxieties. He also knew I would grow closer with my family by making more phone calls and spending more time with them this year than ever anticipated.
The Father knows everything about your life, too, and that should give us great comfort.
“If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
Throughout this year, I’ve felt God convicting me of my attitude. He’s been showing me the posture of my heart and, by taking away so many of the things I looked forward to for 2020, revealing my idols. Let me explain. Without mom groups, childcare, and a busy schedule of activities, can I believe that I’m more than just a mom? That my role as a household executive sans pay (😉) is a worthy one? Without freelance writing jobs or a high blog readership, can I trust that I’m still called to be a writer? That my words matter?
I have wrestled with all of those thoughts this past year. When the things I looked to for contentment and fulfillment were stripped away, I felt somewhat lost. Perhaps you can relate. I think it’s okay to mourn what we lost in 2020, whatever that looks like for you. Let’s process that and then resolve to see the good in this wild season. How might God want to change your heart through all of this?
When we have Christ, there is always goodness to be found (Exodus 34:6). He came so that we might have life and have it in abundance.
Which brings me to my word for 2021.
Abundance.
“...I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.”
I want to shift my perspective to focus on the abundant life God has bestowed upon me. I have access to this abundant life through Jesus, regardless of the circumstances around me and within me. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is always good and always true.
Two years ago on this blog, I wrote:
What would it look like to live out of abundance, rather than focus on what we lack?
What do you feel like you are lacking? Money? A job? Health? A spouse? Children? Friends? A home? You are not alone in feeling like you lack something. As humans, we are going to feel that on this earth. But the thing is, we all have everything we need in Christ. He provides our souls with abundant grace, love, forgiveness, strength, and justice.
This year, I’m praying my heart is fixed on God’s abundant mercy (1 Peter 1:3) and that I would experience an abundance of joy, even when I’m tested by severe affliction (2 Corinthians 8:1-9).
I’m ready to step into the abundant life the Lord has for me. Are you with me?
