Word of the year
Every year around December I start praying that God would give me a word for the following year. I got this idea from a friend, Teresa Quinn, who often talked about her word of the year from the Lord. The first time I tried this I wasn’t sure how to start. I prayed and read through scripture waiting for it to come to me. I began thinking about how things had gone the previous year. Of course there were the normal ups and downs but sometimes a theme will emerge when you consider the events of a year. I honestly can’t remember the first word the Lord gave me, it was many years ago, but I do recall my word of the year playing a significant role in my life.
At some point I started writing down my word of the year and dating it so I could look back and see how my word of the year played out in my life. Here are the words the Lord gave me in the last five years of my life.
2020 - Believe
2021 - Courage & Wait
2022 - Connection
2023 - Faith
2024 - Trust
You’ll notice I got two words from the Lord in 2021 but usually it’s just one word. Looking back it’s amazing how meaningful those words were to me as I faced the everyday challenges of life, coming at me fast and furious. As an example, in 2020 my faith was shaken by several events that year including the world wide pandemic. The word BELIEVE came to me right after we celebrated New Years Day. Little did I know how much that word would mean to me as the year played out. When the word TRUST came to me at the beginning of 2024 I wasn’t sure why God gave me that word. A few months later something happened that shook me up to the core of my being. I was hanging on to trust like a lifeboat in a serious storm. As I close out my last week of 2024 I can say with all confidence that trusting God through some very difficult circumstances turned a bad year into a great year.
And my word of the year for 2025 is, drum roll please…. GO. Now before you jump to conclusions let me assure you that I have no plans to leave PLC. In fact, I'm quite excited about what God has for us this year. I’m not sure how GO is going to play out in my life but God knows. As mentioned, one of my words for 2021 was wait and even though it turned out to be the right word for me that year, waiting has always been a struggle for me. I am wired to go so hearing the word GO from God is like music to my ears. Karen and I are moving this week so in a sense we are already on the GO. However I cannot presume that GO means everything I think it will mean. As always God will have the last word. I hope this short article has encouraged you to seek God about getting your personal word of the year.
Happy New Year,
Steve