As we reach the last few minutes of 2019, I am sure that many of us are ready to wave the old year goodbye and start a new chapter. There is something about the “NEW” that gets us all excited and brings with it fresh, hope, expectation and perspective. The new year signifies a new chapter in our books, with blank pages that are waiting for amazing stories yet to be told.

But before we wave goodbye to the old year and begin riding into the new, I thought that I would highlight a few things that I am thankful for and some life lessons that are recorded in the chapter of 2019 of my own journey.

Be grateful

This past year I have been on a journey of trying to be grateful and thankful for what I have in front of me. It is so easy to focus on what we don’t have and then become negative or move into a place of self-pity (woe is me). This leads us to complain, feel sorry for ourselves and be ungrateful.  Ungratefulness is really not God’s heart for us and when we look around at what we do have, appreciation and gratefulness arises in us. I am realising that there is always something in our lives that we can be thankful and grateful for no matter how tiny it may be. I once listened to an amazing sermon (I can’t recall exactly who the preacher was) but each night before you go to sleep, find 5 things that you are grateful, for that day! You will be astonished at the freedom it brings and it really does start to cultivate an attitude of gratitude in your life. 

Enjoy the moments

So often I am consumed by fear of man and what other people think of me that I find myself stopping short of doing something in case I will be rejected or laughed at. I am beginning to realise that in this life many people will not like you, accept you, want to be your friend and the list really goes on, but I want to encourage you to not let these things STOP YOU. Enjoy every moment of life’s journey no matter the opinions of others. If it makes you happy then do it as it is the moments in life that matter. We will never get back a moment in time, that has passed us by, so let go of fear and live life to the fullest!

I grew up in a family where every picture has to be perfect and if anything is out of place then it is really not a good picture! (You do not post bad pictures… I can hear the echo of family members saying: “please don’t post that picture to social media because of how I look!”) Now, this sounds ridiculous to some, especially with social media trends moving towards the honest and real. Yet this is a great struggle for me due to my upbringing, so this is definitely an area I would love to see greater growth in for 2020. Pictures are so precious as they definitely capture a moment in our lives.

Be kind

In recent months the Lord has been speaking to me about kindness. 

I recently watched two movies which brought further confirmation about being kind to those around us. The one movie was the “Grinch” and towards the end of the movie the grinch said these words, “Too kindness and love, the things we need most” and the other movie was  “Cinderella”, where these words are spoken at the beginning of the story, “Have courage and be kind”

The definition according to the oxford dictionary:

Kindness (noun)

The quality of being friendly, generous and considerate.

Let’s really try and treat people with kindness as everybody is fighting a unique battle that we can’t always see. Battles are never written on people’s faces and many times we are unaware of what people are walking through until we take time out to talk to them and give them a listening ear. Let’s make a point of showering people with kindness in 2020!

Forgive quickly

Along life’s journey, many people will hurt us, and its effects will be painful. Some of us carry deep and painful scars from the hurts and pain we have endured and so often from people who we have loved and trusted. Through it all, I do believe that forgiveness is a choice. We can choose to forgive those who have wronged us as Jesus chose freely to forgive our sins. He took our sins upon Himself at the cross so that we can know freedom and abundant life. The Bible says: “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” ~Colossians 3:13~

Often it is little things that build up in our hearts but unforgiveness towards each other can block our blessings and even lead to sickness in our bodies.

A forgiveness prayer:

Lord Jesus, I come to FORGIVE….……….. (name the person). I choose to RELEASE them to you and I pray BLESSING over their life. I pray that you bless them with abundant life and favour and may they see your glory made manifest in their lives. Amen

Just a hint, many times we will have to forgive the same person a number of times but keep doing it until you sense the freedom!

God is ALWAYS good

This has been a huge one for me in 2019. Life sometimes throws us curveballs and things do not always work out the way we hoped for, but we need to realise that irrespective of the outcome that God is ALWAYS good, and He is still in control. Just to give you some background, I am not sure if you are familiar with the story of Olive Heiligenthal the two-year-old who passed away suddenly in Redding California. Her mom is Kalley from Bethel Worship. They took some time to pray and contend for resurrection life over her and they were trusting for her to be raised from the dead. I completely stood in agreement with a body of believers who contented for Olive to be resurrected and believed that God was well able to do it. I believe that Jesus commissioned us to do the supernatural works of the kingdom and bring heaven to earth.

“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons! Freely you have received; freely give” ~Matthew 10:8~

Olive was not raised, and I struggled with this and have been processing it with the Lord. I do however believe that God is good and that there will be times when we don’t understand the outcome, but God never changes who He is (character, nature) and remains good and kind irrespective of the outcome. His nature is always to be good!

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. ~Psalm 34:8~

So, lets us not stop pursuing God and the supernatural because we don’t get the outcome we want. Let’s continue to engage with a good father!

2020 – The best is yet to come!

These are just a few of the highlights from 2019 but let’s keep looking forward to an even greater year – 2020. I do believe that greater things are ahead for us than what we leaving behind in 2019! The best is yet to come!

My prayer for you is that 2020 will be the BEST year yet and that it will be filled with abundant blessings, dreams fulfilled, hearts desires met and much love and joy.

Keep Going… God is walking ahead into 2020 and He has nothing less than the best in store for your life.

Much love and have a great new year

Caryn