Happy New Year beautiful friends! 2022 is here, along with all of our year's goals and plans. There is something fresh in the air and maybe your eyes are fixed on the future version of yourself. I love to make goals, achievable ones anyway. I don't think there is anything wrong with a New Year's resolution as long as the person you are striving to become doesn't interfere with the love you have for the person you are today.
Have you ever had a goal that you visualized until it came to fruition? I am big on visual meditation. Before a big race, I would always do well to close my eyes and visualize the race as I wanted it to be. I carried this practice into labor with my first son. I envisioned the beauty and feeling I would have when my husband would hand me our son. I envisioned him running on the beach with wild hair blowing everywhere to get me through some contractions.
I like to call this "speaking victory."
When our husbands, children or friends are going through a hard time, it is important for us to demonstrate this for them! We can call them out for their short comings or we can speak over them the person they are striving to be. Let me give you an example.
You notice your husband hasn't been as social lately. He appears to be mad or upset, but truly he is anxious. He feels like a fish out of water and has somehow gotten to a place where he doesn't know what to do next. He is called by God to lead the home, but he is in a season of drowning. Now, is it your responsibility to keep him happy all the time? No way. But, as women, we can model Jesus, and speak victory over him until he sees himself the way God sees him! He has to see himself this way for him to act in this might. So, we encourage. "Babe I remember that time when we were in a financial mess and you figured it out. You always come through for us. Thank you." Or praise him for the things he is doing well! "Babe, I love how you drop everything when you are home to focus on our kids. They just light up when you are home." You get the idea.
This is what God does for us too. He doesn't see you as the failure you feel you are. He isn't up there discrediting you for all the ways you broke your own promises in 2021. He is cheering you on. Calling you out and into the light of His presence. He sees the perfected version of you, covered by the blood of Jesus, redeemed, restored, and loved.
The story of Gideon opens up in Judges 6. A little back story...
Because of Israel again turning their back on God, God gave them over to the Midianites. The Midianites were not happy to just rule over Israel, they wanted to utterly destroy everything they had. While this is going on, Gideon, a future judge of Israel is hiding. Yet, take note throughout Judges 6:11-16 as to what the Angel of Lord calls him.
11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.”16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
Mighty man of valor? Gideon had never fought a battle in his life, let alone be named one of valor! Just to reiterate something, Gideon was afraid. A wise man would not beat wheat in a winepress because it would be damp in there. The goal of beating wheat would be for it to dry. But, again, Gideon was afraid and he was hiding. Yet, its here, in his weakness that the angel of the Lord calls to him. God wasn't seeing Gideon as the man he was in that moment. The angel of the Lord was calling him out of the wine cellar and into the light, to become the man God already saw him to be. God saw the future version of Gideon and spoke that victory over him loud and clear!
The angel is cheering for Gideon to "Go in this might of yours." He can say this to timid Gideon because it isn't the strength of Gideon that is going, but the Lords. Gideon felt like and truly was the least of his clan and the least of his fathers house, yet he was being called to walk in a mighty strength. Called out of the shadow of what was and into the light of God's will for him.
What Shadows from 2021 (or previous) are attenuating to follow you into this new year? What voices do you need to turn off in order to believe you aren't who you used to be?
What is holding you back from a goal you've had for yourself year after year? Can you visualize the goal, meditate on its achievement, and believe that if God is calling you to it, He will be faithful to help you get there?
What victory do you need to begin speaking over yourself? What about your spouse, child, friend? Can you call out the person you believe God sees them as? Help them to move their eyes off of their shortcomings, that we all have, and onto the victory we have in Christ.
I would love to know your goals and callings in this new year. I would love to join forces with you and pray over them. Share in the comment section below or message me privately! You are not alone sweet friends.
Love always,
Jessica
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