END OF YEAR REFLECTIONS…
assess the past, inventory the present and walk into the promises stored up and waiting for you.
Standing on the crest of a new chapter of your life, what do you hope for?
Is it love? Peace? Health? Faith? Influence? Patience? Trust? Rest?
Maybe just plain hope?
Grab hold of the fact that God is bigger and greater than anything you’ve believed Him to be last year. Take stock in your identity and figure out the areas of your life that you’ve boxed Him in, forcing Him to take on a smaller perspective in your life than He really is.
Figure out your purpose and God will surely grow larger, “exceedingly abundantly” beyond what you could ever ask or think. (Eph 3:20) And so will you.
- Know who you are (your identity/mission/purpose) because of Whose you are. To understand yourself, go to the Source who created you! You are made in His image, so, which reflections or characteristics of that Source are you reflecting into the world around you? Or how about this…determine a few characteristics of God that you most appreciate about Him. Those characteristics might be important to you because it’s part of His identity He embedded in you while He knit you together. So give it some thought…He’s patient, kind, unchanging, pure, merciful, all-knowing, gracious, gentle, creative, joyful, just, generous, compassionate, kind, loving, truthful…to name just a few. Pick two of your favorite to start.
- How are you reflecting that character?
- What steps can you take to mirror more of that character?
- What triggers have set you off in the past that prevented you from echoing that character?
- What have trustworthy people closest to you, past and present, said about you? Sometimes others can see our identities better than we can see them ourselves.
- Have you demonstrated healthy or unhealthy reactions? Pay attention to your triggers.
- Think back to who you were as a child.
- What sweet, joyous memories stand out?
- What challenges did you face?
- What did you dream about and pretend as a child?
Sometimes those dreams are the aspirations God stores inside us to be lived out in the future. Often, the experiences He provides along the way are tools to put in our tool belts for what we need in the journey.
- Now, take inventory of who you are today. Clarity in your identity and calling is likely hidden just beneath the surface of these questions:
- What brings you joy?
- What makes you cry?
- What makes you jealous?
- What ‘things’ or issues do you notice all the time?
- What stirs up justice in your heart?
- Where do you see God working in any of those answers? Move in a little closer to that.
- Do you have a life verse that God has given you? If not, pause now and pray. Go to the Scriptures and ask God to reveal it to you. Ask God who HE says you are through this verse or verses, and who HE says you’re not. Remove the pieces of stinking thinking that have lied to you and told you who you aren’t…and you’ll quickly learn to embrace who you are!
Live in His love, laugh in His favor, delight in His presence. Embrace who God’s created and called you to be in 2016. He is bigger than all you’ve believed Him to be last year.