.png)
It's the beginning of the year.
2015
I can hardly believe it, even after writing it out.
If you are like me you spent the majority of December re-evaluating what worked and didn't work in 2014 as well as praying about what the Lord wants to teach you through a renewed resolution to live for Him.
But I'm not one to make a long list of things I want to change anymore. I love lists more than the average person (obsessed is a better word, ha!), but over the past few years I began to see a pattern in my New Year's Resolutions. The same things would be on my list year after year, until about 3 years ago when I realized that I didn't really want to change ANYTHING!
I just wanted to be better at the life God had entrusted me with. I wanted to focus solely on Him. I wanted to be disciplined in time with Him. Everything else would fall into place if I kept my priorities straight. So I opted for a different kind of resolution.
I now pray about a mantra I want to live out through the next year.
For example, my 2014 mantra was “Be Still.” I wanted to be less frantic. Less distracted. Less busy. I wanted to just be okay with “being” with God and trusting in Him.
Now, I'm not saying I've mastered my 2014 mantra, but I feel as though the Lord is impressing a brand new mantra on the heart of this mama for 2015.
There is one word that continues to come to mind: OVERWHELMED.
I have dealt with anxiety my entire life so I KNOW what being overwhelmed is. It's being completely consumed and unable to take an unlabored breath. It is the inability to focus on one thing, and the unexplainable feeling of uneasiness and heaviness.
But what if I were completely and utterly overwhelmed by God?
I want to be totally consumed by Him and unable to take the next breath without being aware of His presence. I want the inability to focus on anything without the filter of His Holy Spirit and I want the unexplainable feeling of hope and security to saturate my thoughts and emotions.
One way my husband, Josh, and I have begun to exercise this is at bedtime. We try to go to bed at the same time. Not only do we enjoy pillow talk and decompressing together after a long day, but we also know the importance of joint time in the Word as a couple. A time to be intimate together with Christ.
It all began after one of Josh's lectures for school. His professor had mentioned this technique that he and his wife use from a book called, Conformed To His Image, by Kenneth Boa. It's called “His Word, Last Word,” or HWLW. The basic concept is to get your Bible and find one verse to meditate on as you drift off to sleep. They will be the last words uttered from your mouth before you kiss each other goodnight and the words your mind will naturally dwell on as you fall asleep.
Here's what we do. We either bring in a verse (or passage) that spoke to one of us during our morning quiet time or bring up the “verse of the day” from the YouVersion app that we both use. (I HIGHLY recommend this app, BTW!) We read the verse, talk about it for a minute, and pray. His words are the last words we hear as we drift off to sleep. It's amazing how easily those words come to mind when I wake up in the morning.
What a perfect way to engulf yourself in His Word and “meditate on it day and night.” What better way can we “hide God's Word in our heart” so that we “might not sin against God” while chipping away at our resolutions this year?
Make His Word your last word.
