CALLED TO BE SELFLESS

I’ve been staring at a pretty pink planner, with gold polka-dots and the year 2018 written across the front, for the past few days. Opening and closing it without writing a single thing. I’ve moved it from the coffee table, to my desk, to my nightstand, and now it resides in the dining room on the kitchen table. I’m reminded that the new year is here every time I pass by it.

I need to set goals.

I need to make resolutions.

I need that “one word” that will make this year great!

I’ve watched as friends have posted their “one word”,  goals, and resolutions on Facebook, excited to get the new year started.

I am too. I would love to reach goals like extending Letting His Light Shine’s Facebook reach and Pinterest following. I would love to see a consistent growth of  visitors and subscribers to my blog. I would like to post consistently. Creating post that people like, enjoy, and find encouraging. I would love to run more, exercise more, eat healthier, maybe lose a few pounds, take more vacation time, find more joy, be happier, less stressed, a better wife, a better mom, maybe even a better employee.

These are all good goals, but they aren’t resonating in my heart.

I began to seek guidance from our wonderful counselor through prayer. Seeking an answer to what my goals should be for 2018. All I keep hearing is be selfless. Be more concerned with the needs and wishes of others than with my own. I asked Him again not really caring for that answer, but over and over again, that is the one word I keep hearing;

And It tugs at my heart…

At first I argued back, I am NOT a selfish person. I even provided a list of all the things I had done over the past year for other people. The answer stayed the same, be selfless. I rattled off the positions I serve within our church, the donations I had made, and the time I had spent volunteering. The answer still didn’t change.

I reasoned with Him. I had thought about the word Faith, it’s an awesome word, and I have a simple 5 step plan to strengthen it. The answer didn’t change. I offered other words and different goals, better resolutions, but still selfless was the only word I could hear.

I started to evaluate the word, and then myself. Do I constantly think about myself? Do I expect appreciation from others? Am I jealous or greedy? Do I get easily offended? Am I envious, unforgiving, judgmental, or lack empathy? Am I ungrateful? Do I place others needs before myself, or do I only do for others when I think they will do for me?

God replayed memories over the past year when I had not been selfless through my mind.

 

Times over the past year when I could only think about myself and what I wanted. Several examples where I thought the work I’d done deserved  praise, but went unnoticed and offense built up in my heart. Times I’ve become jealous of others, not being as supportive and encouraging as I should have been. Moments when I’ve been envious, judgmental, and not caring enough towards particular situations. He showed me that if I was more forgiving, less resentful, and did not place my opinions above others, there are relationships in my life that could have been healed. I could say thank you a lot more often than I do, and spread more encouragement and love.

It was like watching a year in review on Facebook, but it wasn’t the highlight reel. It was the opposite.

I’m trying so hard to be a better person. I want to be different, I want to be changed. I want to spread light. I want to live out His living word. I’m studying it, I’m praying, and I’m learning to trust and have great faith in God. I’m trying to be obedient. I’m trying to be a better person today than I was yesterday. I’ve already come along way, but now He says I must be selfless.

He see’s my heart, He knows my thoughts, and He says there is still so much work to be done.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

John 16:2

In one word He provided every goal I needed, every resolution to keep. That my darling friend is why He is our wonderful counselor.

In the next year, I will continue to pull back layers of darkness, so light can be revealed. Shedding jealously, greed, offense, envy, and ungratefulness. I’ll be forgiving, without hesitation. I’ll take care of myself, but I’ll place a great priority on taking care of others, in the small every day situations, the ones that go unnoticed. The ones that will truly make me a wonderful daughter of the one true king.  I’ll give more and take less. I’ll be encouraging to others. I will be less judgmental, remembering that in the same way I judge them, I will be equally judged. I will be kind and show love more freely. I will work to repair the broken relationships around me, even in awkward and uncomfortable situations. I’ll focus on doing only good, and spreading light around me.

In 2018 I will sow seeds of selflessness.

I am well aware that my relationship with God will become stronger, as I humble myself before Him every morning in prayer, asking Him to show me how I can be a blessing to someone else. Asking Him to show me the people in need, the people I can encourage, the people I can help. Asking Him to help me be selfless, asking Him to change my heart and mind. Asking Him to help me be more like Christ, and less like the world. Asking Him to help me live out Matthew 7:12 everyday.

 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:12

And again…when I sit in His presence in the evening after tripping, stumbling, or falling flat on my face thanking Him for His mercy. Thanking Him for His grace. Thanking Him for His patience. Thanking Him for His strength when I am weak, and His love when I am defeated.

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13

It is only with Him within me, that a call like be selfless can be possible.

“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:26

Have you gone before our wonderful counselor to seek out what your “one word”, goals, or resolutions should be for 2018? Have you given Him this new year, asking Him to lead and guide all your paths?  Do the plans that you have for yourself line up with the ones He already has for you? Will God be changing your heart and your mind, making you different in 2018?

God will continue to prune me in the new year, in ways I hadn’t even realized I needed. I am so excited to see the fruit I will bear in the future.

So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

Colossians 1: 10-12

I wish you a very happy 2018 my darling friend!

Many blessings,

Jen

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