Phew! Love them though we do, it’s always nice when the holidays are over and we can stop and breathe again!
Right now, my biggest task is to find peace and a rhythm in my life. I’ve had a mad rush getting a new book done over Christmas and New Year, plus added complications with my husband and mother-in-law that have me praying overtime.
The Lord is leading me to seek a more balanced way to do my life. He has a plan for me, even down to the smallest detail, and I want to seek His will in all things.
After wrestling with Him for so much of last year, kicking and screaming against His plan for me, I know that only when I live His way will I find joy and peace.
Each January for the past few years, I’ve done a process of prayerfully seeking one word to set my intention for the year, instead of doing New Year’s Resolutions. Each time, God has powerfully used that word through the year to teach me the biggest lessons He wants me to learn. LOL, even if by March I’ve forgotten what my word was!
The lessons may not be the ones I expected, or even wanted to learn, but there’re always what I most deeply need. Thankfully He has a higher plan and purpose than I can see.
Surrender yourself to the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Psalm 37:7
My word for 2016 is surrender.
Deeper surrender to God, and to my husband. Giving Jesus total Lordship over my life, and not using my husband’s health problems as an excuse to hold back from giving him headship of our household.
I trust in God, and He wants me to trust in Him even more. He wants me to learn that when I follow His guidance, all will be well. He’s asking me to stop making big plans and getting too attached to them. Instead, He wants me to take things day by day, trusting in Him and listening for His whispers telling me the way.
He’ll be there every step of the way, helping me to live my word for the year, surrender.
I’d love for you to share your one word for the year too, in the comments!
As always happens with me, the heroine of my current story is learning the same lesson! She too needs to surrender to God’s plan for her life, which goes against all she believes about herself.
I do believe the biggest reason I’ve been blocked and unable to finish a story for much of last year was because I refused to learn what God asked me to, so neither could my characters. Once I stopped struggling, listened to God’s guiding, and obeyed, whoomp, this story came!
I have one ebook copy of my novella A Lesson in Love, due to release on January 15th, to give away to a randomly chosen reader who comments on this post by Sunday 10th January 2016. I hope you’ll enjoy Sarah and Fraser’s story.
Love can make life complicated! Sports teachers Fraser Maclean and Sarah Browne have worked together all year, but when working on a garden project for their church brings them together outside of school, everything changes. Can they learn God’s lessons in love, or will secrets and fear keep them apart?
USA Today bestselling author Autumn Macarthur writes romances full of faith and hope, celebrating God's love as well as a man and a woman finding their happily ever after. She prays they’ll warm your heart and make you smile. An Australian transplanted to Britain, Autumn lives just north of London with her lovely English husband and three demanding cats, in a very small house with a teensy tiny garden. She loves talking to readers, so please get in touch! And get a free Christian romance novella when you sign up for her reader newsletter at http://bit.ly/Autumnsubscribe
Great word, Autumn! Choosing one word to meditate on throughout the year is so much better than making resolutions that are impossible to keep. Later this month, my first post on Inspy will touch on my word, so I’ll hold off in sharing for now.
Hi Autumn! Thanks for sharing your word. It’s powerful! Like Jill, I’m doing a WOTY post as well, so I’ll hold off, but thank you again for sharing your heart in this post.
Congratulations on the novella, Autumn–the cover is gorgeous! Hugs to you across the sea. My word is a weird one: consolidate. Not what I expected, but I heard it clearly.
My life word is moderation. It served. My ancestors well. This word can be applied to all areas of life – we will not over eat, stress out, or over do. Congrats on your new book. The people on the cover definitely look like they are in love. Well done.
Sounds like a lovely book!
Love this post! And your word. That is a great word. My word is: uncommon hope: Uncommon hope, as in the uncommon hope we have in Jesus when He died on the cross. Uncommon hope that He loves us. John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” Uncommon hope that we have eternal life in Him. John 10:26-28 26″But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27″My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.… Uncommon hope that God is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).
Geared toward my writing, uncommon hope that God is doing amazing things. He is the coordinator and He is leading. My job is to follow. Easy, right? lol. Fear. Yeah there’s a big chunk of that I didn’t realize was there holding me back. I am praying for a joy-filled year full of unexpected amazing God-given things exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think. Don’t limit God and what He can do. My motto for the year!
I’m using the word – Thankful..
in ALL things..
Surrender, I like that!
Autumn,
Thanks for sharing your personal story of sometimes struggling to listen to what God wants you to hear. I’ve done this too. You’d think that once we really hand things over to Him and learned to trust we’d do it more readily. Not….for some reason we like to have control, even when His way is always better!
You might think that this year my word would be trust, but it’s not……this year my word is, Grace.
I look forward to reading more of your posts.
Patience. Is my word.Good blog post.
I can’t wait to read your newest tale, Autumn!
My word for this year is grace. Need to have more of it for myself as well as for others. Last year had its ups and downs and I forgot this sometimes.
My word for the year is determined!
Enjoyed your post and love your word for the year. I picked a word on New Years Day. My word is Blessings. I want to count my blessings daily and be grateful for all I have and have been given each day. Love the cover of your new release coming next week. Looking forward to reading it.
2015 was so crazy for me, especially in December, that I didn’t have time to reflect on a word for the year, and yet the Lord gave me one anyway. Peace. In the church service, in the songs the choir was singing. Loud and clear. Peace. Not just finding peace, but also becoming an instrument of God’s peace to others, as St. Francis’s poem goes.
I look forward to seeing that, Jill! Great post for your first here. Welcome to the Inspy sisters! :)
*smiling* Looks like the WOTR thing is something many of us are doing, Lindi. :) Can’t wait to see your post!
That’s an interesting one, Lee! But I can see it could have meaning on so many different levels. Isn’t that the thing when we ask God for a word? We have to take the one we get! ;)
Thank you for your comments on the cover, Renate. :)
Moderation is an excellent word, and because it’s so timeless, one with a long history.
If my word wasn’t surrender, it would be balance, which is very near in spirit to moderation, I think.
Thank you Jenna! I hope so! :)
Wow! Sally, there is so much to think on in your comment, an entire blog post in itself! If you have blogged this, please would you post the link here, I’d love to share it!
I hear you on the fear. Hoping and trusting and surrendering to follow where He leads is a huge scary adventure. Your prayer is perfect. Uncommon hope in action. :)
D K, that’s such an important word. I live my life so differently when I approach it with a spirit of giving thanks to God. That was my biggest lesson of last year, I think. LOL, and probably this year too!
Oh Marylin! I needed to reach for a tissue reading your comment. Grace is the biggest thing of all. Without grae, we have nothing. Love it! Thank you for reminding me. :)
Thanks Linda. Patience is a wonderful fruit of the Spirit. Praying you’re abundantly blessed.
He he! It’s the follow-up to my Splash story (as you might guess from the cover). I hope it’s a good read!
That is so true, Jennifer. Grace isn’t only something we receive but something we give as well. I think as we open our hearts more and more to the action of God’s grace in our lives, it naturally flows out from us. Praying this year is easier for you.
Good one, Karen. That makes me think of Joshua 1:9!
That’s a beautiful word, Nancy! Prayers that your year is richly blessed. I sometimes forget that, but when I look for blessings, I always find them. I think you are a blessing-counter rather than a blessing-overlooker. Such a good way to be!
I love that poem Deb! Great way to start the year. And yes, I think our true word does often come like that, a gift we didn’t know we were looking for. Nice!
Everyone has picked awesome words, mine is Patience.
A wonderful choice, Lientjie. :)
Mine is Expectant
An excellent word, Teresa!
My word is renewal
A powerful word. :)
I had renewal the first year I started asking for one word. I hope it is a wondeful year for you!
Oh this is so funny Autumn on the timing of this post! I had no intention on choosing a word for the year, just as I don’t make resolutions or goals (never have). I just recently learned that many people do the word of the year, not sure why I haven’t heard of it before. But in any case…..I was happily going on about life & a few days before the New Year, I heard a whisper in my ear “Faith”. Well, I TRIED to dismiss it, shake it off or ignore it, but it kept growing in my heart. So I finally acknowledged that maybe God chose a word FOR me this year. I’ve made peace with it & am excited as to how he will work this in my life this year. A little apprehensive to thinking about situations He may put me through to test that…yikes! You see, my husband has always come by faith in the Lord naturally. I have long admired him for this, even before we married. It’s one of the traits that had first attracted me to him. Over the years and through some hard times in our marriage, he’s shown it to me over and over again. He tells me quite often that he has faith God will work out whatever situation we may be facing at the time. Me, not so much! I tend to worry about things or not see how God can possibly work it all out. Just over the last year or so, God has also brought to mind the scripture where it says “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”. Well I have been practicing that and have found that I am less anxious & have more faith. So I’m thinking that these two things have come together for me and that God is working in that area in my heart! Maybe that’s one of the reasons He’s given me my word this year. I also know I still tend to worry about some big life issues, maybe He needs to stretch me in this area more…who knows? I know He will reveal it to me as it comes, day by day & that I must trust Him with my whole heart (and I do!) :-)
I hope this makes sense! Faith isn’t always an area that comes naturally to me, so I’m looking forward to it one day becoming more natural the more I practice it :-)
Trixi, thanks so much for sharing that! I truly believe that God gives us the word. I wasn’t looking for mine either. I just knew, one day near the end of December, that surrender was my word.
It sounds as if God is taking you on a wonderful faith journey! It may be a year of wonderfully answered prayers and far yes worry, I’m thinking, rather than trials and tests. We all need to report in at the end of the year how Gos worked the one word in our lives. :)
What a blessing having such a faith-filled husband. Possibly a challenge too at times, as your faith gets stretched!
Thank you, Autumn! I’m thrilled to be here. :)
This is a beautiful post Autumn, and a wonderful reminder of Who is in charge of our lives. You are not alone in your struggle and I will be praying for you and your family. Honestly, I need more than one word for the year: Patience with my aging father, Wisdom for a committee I am leading, but I think the best word for me this year may be “Listen.” Sometimes I’m moving so fast that I don’t stop to hear what God is trying to tell me. Pausing to listen carefully will keep me on the right path.
That’s so true Stacey, different words for different parts of my life. “Listen” is a huge one for me, too. Praying for you too! <3
My word for the year should probably be patience!
That is a good one for all of us, Linda! I just realised, my verse for the year, Psalm 37:7, has patience built in! “Surrender yourself to the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.”
LOL, guess He knew I needed patience too so I didn’t get fed up demanding instant results from my surrender!
Thanks Autumn. I have great expectations on what the Lord will do and I believe He will be here shortly.
:) I hope so!
Renate Pennington, you won the prize draw for a copy of my new release! I emailed but didn’t get a reply! If you’d like to claim your prize, please email me!
autumn (at) autumnmacarthur (dot) com