I've taken a few weeks off from the blog to enjoy vacation with my best friend and Christmas and New Years with my wonderful family!! It's been a great time of relaxing with friends and family, celebrating God's blessing, reflecting on this past year, and preparing for the new year ahead.
I love this time of year and the excitement and anticipation of a new year. It's 365 new days. 365 days worth of life to live. 365 stories to write. I've heard people say time and time again, "a lot can happen in a year." The last few years of my life have been evident of that. Bottom line- God's done a lot in my life these last few years and I can't wait to see what this year holds.
Do you get as excited as I do about a new year? Are you anxious at what lies ahead?
What I'm convinced of is this- God has big plans. In a world where chaos appears to reign, God is still King. He is a Sovereign God and he continue to work even when we are unable to see it.
And for reasons sometimes unknown to me, he wants to use us. For some reason, God wants to use me. Me. The sinner. And come December 31, 2015 I want to look back on this year knowing that I walked in the path God had for me, that I lived a surrendered life open to his work, and that I was a blessing to those around me.
As I began to think of the things I wanted to accomplish this year, the changes I wanted to make, the things I wanted to cut out, the one thing that I came back to time and time again was that I want to be a blessing to every single patient and person that I come into contact with and that I want God to use me.
During Sunday school this past week we talked about God using Ezra to lead a group of priests, Levites, singers, and others back to Jerusalem. While Ezra came from a long lineage of priests and he was definitely qualified to share the Word of God, the task ahead wasn’t easy. The people had been in exile for many years and there was a desperate need to reestablish proper worship as the people returned to Jerusalem.
What I love about this story however is that the king sent Ezra to lead this group through months of travel with endless amounts of gold and treasures. What the King didn't send was an army or troops to protect the people or the treasure as they made their way home.
But in all His goodness, all His working, God used a scribe to transport all that treasure and lead those people safely back to Jerusalem out of exile. A scribe. Not a great warrior. Not a solider. A scribe. An unlikely leader but one that would have a definite impact on the history of God's people.
If you're like me, that plants hope in the depths of your life. If God chooses to use a scribe in such an unlikely situation, he can and will use you and I if we allow ourselves to be open to his plans.
I don't know what unlikely situations God will put each of us in this year, but I'm convinced that if we allow Him to work in our lives, if we follow His teaching, if we live out his word, he will use us.
Will you be open to it? Will you allow Him to work in your life? Will you allow Him to use you in 2015 no matter how unlikely the situation? Please know that with everything I have, I'm praying you will.
