My word for the year is Breakthrough. What is it about this word that is challenging? Let’s look up the definition and see what we find. Here are the three that stood out to me, taken from Merriam-Webster:
warfare; an offensive military assault that penetrates and carries beyond a defensive line.
a person’s first notable success
a sudden advance, especially in knowledge or technique.
Breakthrough is an active position. It is not a place you can sit back and watch things happen. You have to be ready. You have to be on the offensive line. You need to have an action plan in place to see the fulfillment of your breakthroughs to come. This is not for the faint of heart. But, let me encourage you that the best things in life are worth the fight, especially when that person is you.
There are so many things fighting for our attention: our families, work, social obligations, social media, and the list could go on and on. Sometimes the breakthrough is more of a breaking out. Breaking out of our comfort zones. Breaking out of our typical routines. This is still a current struggle, hence, why it's my word for the year. I do not want to delay things due to fear. I do not want to look back and have regret where I wished I had done something but never did. I want to live fully alive. I want to experience the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. This takes intentionality. This takes self-awareness. This takes discipline. This takes letting go of some of the selfish desires and embracing the newness of life. Here are a few ways I believe we can get there:
Make time to connect with the Father through prayer, praise, and the reading of his Word.
Believe that God has put some amazing gifts inside of you that need to be heard and felt.
Connect more with the people around you.
One way to connect with others is through encouragement. Encouraging people doesn’t cost you a thing, and you don’t need an education either. Encouragement makes people feel better. It’s the simple acts of goodwill towards your fellow man. When acts of kindness with no desire for anything in return happen, you are doing something inside of the other person’s heart. You might just be mending something you had no idea needed mending. That is when the Holy Spirit is functioning within you. This experience and feeling of being able to comfort and encourage someone else has been more gratifying than any business goal I have achieved—when something inside of you realizes you are hosting His presence. In my Passion Translation Bible, it says, "God has created us to be a container for His glory." All I know is that I made a commitment last September that I was going to surrender my story until I saw His glory. Will you? Will you fight for His glory story? Let’s make a commitment to do a few things out of normal to press ourselves further into all God created us to be.
And remember, no matter what you hear, you can always bring your cheer and smile from ear to ear!
#Breakthrough #MyMendedHeart #Inthesendingcomesthemending
My word this year is “release!”