Recently I was reminded of a special moment I had with a precious woman after an event in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was well regarded for her ministry nationally and known for her down to earth yet powerful voice.
We were chatting briefly, and she was asking me how things were going. After I made a few brief comments she knowingly smiled, grabbed me by the arm, and pulled me down into the seat beside her. In her beautiful, husky voice, she shared this gold mine of a story with me:
“Jen, years ago when my husband died unexpectedly, I was surrounded by an overwhelming amount of unknown. Everything and everyone in my life was screaming for decisions from me. One night alone in my house I was weeping and said, “God, I am surrounded by decisions, and I’ve got no clue what to do.” He answered me and said, “No you aren’t. You don’t have to figure out or decide one single thing.”
She went on to say, “Jen, I was shocked. I began listing all the things screaming for decisions, but then the Lord gave me this truth that changed my life from that day until now:
He said to me, “All you have to do is choose today what I already decided for you yesterday and you will walk in the benefits of it tomorrow.”
She said, “Honey, the more I let that sink in, all the pressure melted right off of me. I realized my Father in heaven had gone before me and He already knew my way forward. He had decided the best way for me to go, and all I had to do was follow Him and be led by Him.”
Sitting there next to her in that event center tears filled my eyes as the same flood of relief hit my heart too. Amazing what a moment of real truth can do.
I would imagine that like me, maybe you are recognizing and feeling the significance of a new year as we stand at the head of what looks to be a brand new era in the midst of a whole lot of chaos in the world.
The seeming battles and chaos we faced last year have ushered us into where we stand now, and although we know the turning of the page on a calendar has not signified that those battles are over, there is a strong sense—a strong spiritual sense deep in our hearts that something new is in the air.
This is a common phrase used to describe, as Cambridge Dictionary puts it, “When you feel something is happening or is just about to happen.”
That is the sense that I have as we’ve come into this new year of 2021. Although we may still be fighting and standing in some of the same battles of 2020 with a great deal of unknown staring us in the face, there is a sense that something new is in the air for us.
It’s a fresh wind for the fight, a new stamina for the stand, and it’s coming from heaven.
I believe this something new will play out in many ways and will probably be defined as many things, but one descriptive I feel strongly about is that this something new carries with it a resurgence of new places of renewal, new places of dependency on the Lord, and as we engage it, new openings and new things to walk into.
I realize we could all look at the landscape of our lives or listen to the experts, and all of that could paint quite a different picture than what I am talking about.
It could paint a scene that everything around us is up in the air, that things are uncertain, and no one seems to know the way forward. But the truth is we do know. We know because we know Him.
He is our North Star—our forever compass in every season. He’s been where destiny compels us to go if we dare, and He is willing to make the journey with us.
I want to remind you at the head of 2021 that your provision lies on the path of your destiny. Let this truth put a fresh strength in your heart. Reach out, reach up, and keep your eyes open for possibilities in this time. What you and I could watch unfold in this next year can be quite spectacular with Him as our guide.