A few weeks ago I read a blog (for the life of me I can not remember the writer’s name, so if I’m talking about you, please forgive me! I would have totally given you the credit if I could remember). She mentioned in it that each year, instead of making the usual New Year’s resolutions, she picks a word and tries her best to live it out the remainder of the year.
It’s not just any word. She doesn’t just thumb through a dictionary and voila! This year’s word is “resign.” Well that’s an easy one. Or is it? No, she chooses a word that “chooses her.” A word that she hears often in things that speak to her, or a word that God has placed in her consciousness for whatever reason. (She described her manner of choosing much better than I am right now.) Anyway, I thought that it was an interesting concept. For instance, one year her word could have been “Joy” or “Family.”
She would study it, seek out understanding of the word in scripture and how she should apply it to her life and the lives of those she comes in touch with throughout the new year. I have since seen random social media postings on “What’s your word.” Or “What word best describes you?” So I’m thinking either this woman started some kind of revolutionary way of heading into the new year or it’s some kind of millennial fad for 2019…which I’m not one that has ever been terribly big on going with what is en vogue. I’m usually a “last season” sort of gal.
Back to this whole “word” topic though. Since reading that blog and seeing similar things pop up, I started to realize that there was indeed one word that kept coming up. In emails I read, in articles, stories, listening to people talk, scripture…. and I started to wonder…what if that’s my word this year?
So I’ve picked at it the past few days and I’ve meditated on whether or not I should use this word. How could I use it? How will it help me or my family and friends? Am I just being a bit crazy thinking I “have a word?” Then I started to piece together the other things that others have been telling me pretty consistently and I stopped. I asked God to take it. I mentally laid it down in front of him and asked him to keep it until when/if He he could tell me what to do with it. Not long after I did that a verse came to mind…
“So that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:7
I’m not exactly sure yet what that passage means or in what context it was used. I haven’t studied it, I had only read it once in my brief research of what the definition of “gold” is. However, the thought that came to mind after recalling this verse was the fact that Jesus himself is considered higher than angels. That his majesty is worth more than all of the gold, silver and precious stones in the entire world. That his worth is priceless, immeasurable.
So I took my word, gold, and I thought….how many moments or deeds in my life have I measured as “golden?” How many times have I felt like I had been “good as gold?” How many times in my life have I placed a value on Christ and on God as if they have limits or can been weighed? How does the “gold” in my life, compare to what and who Christ and God are?
I learned that a small nugget of gold no bigger than a pea, could be spread so thin that it could cover the entire surface of my bathroom counter. That it can be made into a sheet so fine that it could become transparent. What if I were to take my “gold” moments, hammer it out so that it could blanket others, and place less value on what I have done and on my “gold?” Instead, I place the credit on Christ and on God and remember how He is infinitely more precious and valuable than any gold I have to offer? That my best of the best will be tested by fire. That He can see right through my “gold” and into the deepest recesses of my soul.
So, for this year, I will carry Au. (That was for you chemistry fans) How can gold help me to walk a little closer with Jesus?
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