The Year of Reward
A Sonic Boom of Holy Spirit guidance and direction happened at the end of 2020!
Photo by Peter Mizsak on Unsplash
Much like many other believers, each year I ask God for a word. I’m not quite sure when I started doing this or the specific reason I was convinced it was a good idea. But in general, I have found that having an overall theme has encouraged me to have faith for that year and hold fast to God when the unexpected challenges arise.
The word I had for 2020, was a strange one. In fact, initially, I told God that I didn’t think it was correct and I would wait for further confirmation before I committed it. But in true God-like fashion, He did affirm the word through the most unusual of circumstances that I could not have manufactured in my own strength.
The word was ‘REWARD’. I felt guilty about this word. Truly, I have always felt uncomfortable with the idea of my faith being invested in what I gain from it. Though this seems like a noble sentiment, in its extreme, there is discomfort with receiving obvious God-given blessing. So I wasn’t sure what ‘REWARD’ was going to look like.
I certainly did venture into and through challenges that I would never have anticipated this year. Led by the Holy Spirit, I began working at a church again. There was a time when I wasn’t sure I could ever work in a church again, but God not only showed me that I could, He gave me an exceptionally pleasant environment to experience His love, grace and mercy through the Body of Christ.
I finished writing my second book: “Disillusioned: When You Get Lost Following Jesus”, which is being released online in a matter of days. There also was a time when I wasn’t sure if this ‘writing thing’ (what I often refer to it as) was a career path or just a one-off adventure. To feel led to write another book certainly answered some of that question.
But then at the end of the year, I faced an incredibly tough challenge. I daresay the hardest I have ever faced. A phobia of sorts gripped my mind for 10 weeks, causing me to be unable to eat. I was pushed to my very limit in keeping my mind healthy. My brain was divided as my emotional brain completely nullified any attempt my logical brain made to resolve the internal conflict. I had to seek help, and again, guided by the Holy Spirit have been essentially HEALED (with the odd trigger here and there. But so infrequent is such triggers that it hardly seems right to declare anything other than healing).
As I was coming to the final chapter of the season of healing, a sonic boom of Holy Spirit direction and leading unfolded in a condensed period of time. Over the last few years, I have been unsure about the direction God had been leading me in. But SUDDENLY, everything came in to place. It was finally made clear to me what He would have me do in these years of my life, and how He would have me do it. So yes, REWARD has proven to be a pertinent word. It is not the kind of reward that the world would often seek: success, money, pleasure, status...But this is the reward for faithfully walking out Gods will. Even though it has at times been very painful, and didn’t make a great deal of sense. The reward of walking out the tough times is, that joy is on the other side. This is the promise we have in Jesus who set the standard when He walked a path of surrender, for the joy for ALL on the other side.
Needless to say, there is much that awaits in 2021 as I again walk out what I think God is leading me to do. I hope you enjoy watching the journey and take courage for yourself from the steps I take.
The word for 2021 is WONDER. And for the first time, I have a corresponding verse to accompany the word! And so, I look forward to writing this time next year the testimony that WONDER came to represent.