2016's Wise Word

Welcome, 2016!  I have a good word for you.

But first, last year's Wise Word project - Humility.  Ohhhh, humility.  This one has done its work in me.  Humility has been a stinging practice.  It has been relentless.  It has burned. It has stopped me in my mental and verbal tracks many a time. It has broken my heart.  And really that must be, and is, for the best because we know the heart, my heart, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  Yes.  Break this heart and give me a heart more after You, Lord.  In fact, I feel like I have lots of room/need to continue pursuing humility and allowing it to keep doing its work in me.  I guess, like mercy of 2014,  I will invite it into the coming year as well.  We need more time together.  It has been interesting to me how much mercy informed my experience with humility this past year.  They really go hand in hand.  This verse among many was one I referenced in my personal humility practice more than anything.

It really takes a healthy dose of humility to practice patience. And for me, I have practiced this humility in situations where I put my own will on a leash and chose to not have to speak up, not force my hand, not demand my way, not desire the win, not be fully heard, not overpower, not pursue proof or justification for myself, etc.  This verse, I found, really applies ... like every day.  Every day,  I could use it to shut down my selfish thought processes.  Some days I failed in this.  But mostly, I got better and better at this. There were many verses I treasured this year in terms of humility, but this one above all will stay etched into my memory for the rest of my life.

So, humility and mercy, I take your hands in the coming year, as I welcome a new spiritual discipline project.  (It is truly humbling - ha - that even with two year's worth of effort, I just see how much more time I could spend with these words before truly, truly getting there!)  Anyway, the Wise Word the Lord has been tenderly and repeatedly calling to mind for 2016 that will pair well with humility and mercy is ...  Steadfast ... as in steady, enduring, unwavering, sure, remaining, set, standing firm, faithful.  All these wise words are great to pursue, but even greater would be my steadiness in them.

Yes, steadfastness is what I need more of in my walk.  And it is most certainly a character trait of Jesus.  Some verses to get me started with Steadfastness this coming year include ...

Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Proverbs 4:26 - Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.  Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all yours ways will be established.

Psalm 119:5 - Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!

2 Peter 1:5-8 - For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

James 1:2 - Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance (steadfastness). But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Isaiah 26:3 - You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you.

1 Corinthians 15:58 - Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Ephesians 6:11, 13  - Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.  ... Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

1 Corinthians 16:13 - Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith...

Hebrews 10:23 - Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

Joshua 23:6 - Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left ...

Proverbs 10:25 - When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever.

Hebrews 10:36-39 -  For you need endurance, so that after you have done God's will, you may receive what was promised.  'For yet in a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him.' But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and obtain life. 

Hebrews 12:1 - Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne.

And so, a closing verse and prayer from Psalm 51:10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  (Anyone else sing the tune that goes with this verse?  Just me?  Ok, fine.  It's cool.)

Wish me luck, steady luck - ha!, with steadfastness in 2016 ... and, if I do it right, beyond this year. :}