Anticipate His Goodness
Every year I choose one a word that I soak in for the entire year. My word for 2022 was anticipation. I loved the depth of this word.. it challenged me and yet lead me into some really sweet moments with the Lord this year. I loved the sweet ways that God would show up with this word in scripture, in random literature that I was reading. As we came closer to the closing of 2022, the sweetness of Advent gave me even more depth and brought a rich new meaning to this word.. anticipation. I loved using the She Reads Truth advent study and the ways the Lord used this one little word over and over blessed me beyond measure.
Anticipation.. requires action on our parts.. a movement. Anticipation.. requires faith in many ways that require you to trust that God will do what He promises. And in the slow and steady quiet of Advent.. God reminded me over and over of the ways we anticipate His goodness.. in the day to day mundane tasks, in the deeper things like healing or taking care of something we’ve been pouring prayers over. We anticipate His goodness to meet us there. As I began the advent study, I had just spent a lot of time in the book of Leviticus and Hebrews. God used those books to draw me nearer and bring Him into a clearer focus for my life. Leviticus is such a hard read, but it showed me how God’s heart longed for His people to just simply choose Him.. but also that His heart longed to be near to them. If He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow as I believe Him to be, then He still longs for those same things today.. for us to have a heart that wants to be close to Him and His heart still longs to be near to us! This book also brought such clarity to humanity and it’s brokenness.. not always by our sinfulness, which we are naturally, but just broken in every sense of the words. I want to do a more in depth post about my thoughts here soon - but as I read Leviticus and the need of the Israelites to provide sacrifices for cleansing - my heart saw even in the scabs from a bug bite on my one year old’s leg - is a sign to me that she lives in an earthly body that will always be broken and that even in those simple yet normal things to us here on this earth - God shows us we are broken and in need of Him. Even in something as normal to us as an itchy, annoying bug bite - we need and anticipate His healing. Our view of Hope in this world is so much greater when Jesus is central to that because without Jesus Christ - and the good news of the Gospel - there is no hope, no healing, nothing to anticipate. Every inch of the Old Testament was a link in God’s chain of grace inching ever more closer to the birth of the One who would come for the healing of the world. They anticipated Him then as much as we anticipate Him coming again today! Every link in the chain hinges on His coming into the world, both then and now. We must turn and fix our eyes on a God who is good - in every sense of the core of this word and anticipate with joy and faithful expectation that His goodness isn’t founded by anything we can do.. but simply in its entirety.. it’s who He is. I pray that we don’t miss the joy in the anticipation.. but I am also praying that we don’t miss the Movement of faith through our obedience of what God has called us to do.
Lord, as 2022 comes to an end, and 2023 brings a new year - that we look out into the possibility of of what offers and anticipate you more than anything else. May we allow the Holy Spirit to refresh our Hope as we anticipate the fulfillment of promise in our lives, in our homes and families, in our ministries, in our jobs, in our communities and in our churches. May we draw nearer and see you more clearer as we surrender to the work you have ahead of us. May we stand on the truth of your word and let it always be louder in our lives than the cultural norms. May we look to the future with Hope for what only you have the power to do in us and around us. May our movement be for the Glory and good of your kingdom - above all else - may we seek first the Kingdom knowing that everything good is found there. In Jesus name. Amen.