2013 - Awaken

I've been on a journey with God over the last couple of years.  Instead of making New Year's Resolution's that I rarely keep, God gives me a theme for the year.  It's been so interesting to see what He has taught me and it is a bit easier for me to see what He may be up to in my life.

2011 was the year of Living Victoriously.  It truly was.  I discovered areas of freedom that I didn't even know I needed.

2012 was the year of Passionate Pursuit.  While the first half of the year was invigorating and definitely lived up to what I thought the theme should look like.  The latter part of the year left me with more questions than answers.  What does passionate pursuit of Him look like?  So He gets glory?  When no one else is watching?

The thing that I love about what He's doing with these themes is He's building.  He's basically rebuilding me into the woman He's already made me to be.  He's just revealing that woman to me in doses that I can take when I need them.

So looking forward to 2013, through prayer and much confirmation over the last couple of weeks, the theme is Awaken.  While my first thought, was "God, I thought I was awake..." I had to live victoriously and fight the condemnation that came with that ugly thought from my enemy.  Then I had to passionately pursue His word and discover what He had in store.  This is where He is leading me...

Romans 13:11-14 (The Message) - But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

Ephesians 5:13-15 (The Message) - Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.

Wake up from your sleep,

Climb out of your coffins;Christ will show you the light!

So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!

"The only way to rip out the tape of self-rejection is listening to the song of His serenade.  Because as C.S. Lewis adamantly argued, the most fundamental thing is not how we think of God, but rather what God thinks of us.  How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important.  Giving thanks awakens to a God giving Himself."  --- Ann Voskamp (Dec. 22, God in the Moment - One Thousand Gifts Daily Calendar)

Song - Awaken by Natalie Grant - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yngKB7pykaA  

"Awake" in the King James version of the above verses have great meaning in the Greek.  Egeiro (eg-i-ro) simply means any of the following (and all fit for this year's theme!):
rouse (literally from sleep, from sitting or lying, from disease, from death, or figuratively from  obscurity, inactivity, ruins and nonexistence), rise, raise, arise, raise up, rise up, rise again, raise again, awake, lift up, rear up, arise, stand, take up.  

I'm in the midst of reading "Lioness Arising" by Lisa Bevere.  (it is a great and challenging read!)  One of the chapters is titled, "Dangerously Awake".  Here are some key points I took away from that chapter...

• "There's nothing more dangerous than being in the presence of lions when they are fully awake."
• Unfortunately we often live as tranquilized Christians, sedated by the day-to-day
• "Be up and awake to what God is doing!"
• "I have no idea what all this (the wake-up process in Christian women) may look like once we are fully awake, but I'm pretty sure we will look dangerous in teh dark and glorious in the light."
• "I have come to believe that the expression of a fierce, wild lioness of a Christian woman is yet to be defined."
• "A how-to, step-by-step Christianity leaves us void of much of the mystery of God. So this is not a how-to message.  I want you awakened - to rise up a lioness and walk in your unique expression of what that means.  Only you and God can define what that lioness will look like when she is fully awake in you."
• "God did not save you to tame you."

Looking forward to what He has in store for 2013 and discovering the new ways I will learn to give Him glory.  

Happy 2013 to you!  Praying you experience His presence like never before!