Proclaim the Year of the Lord's Favor!

Happy New Year!!! 2010-- can you believe it? I'd been calling it "Two-Thousand-Ten", but now that I've heard people saying "Twenty-Ten", that sounds way cooler and easier to say. My New Year's Eve was verrrryyyy low-key this year. I wasn't feeling well that day or most of the weekend following. But, I rallied a bit to ring in Twenty-Ten. I didn't go out until after 8pm and picked up my friend Kim at her place. We went out for sushi and it was sooo yummy and fun. Afterwards, we headed to Lucy's for a little gathering. It was only a handful of people. We had snacks and treats and watched the ball drop and the atrocious performances happening across the USA. What is up with little Selena Gomez dressing so provocatively?? And I thought Robin Thicke was supposed to be good...he was awful and looked awful to boot. We had fun laughing at them and getting Lucy up-to-speed on a little pop culture! I spent most of New Year's Day at home. Got out for a bit for a little run/walk in the park and some errands. That night, I met Lucy & Kim to see "Precious" and then we went to a coffee shop for a while. I don't know what to say about that movie. It is such a sad story, and unfortunately, probably very accurate to some real life situations.

I only set one New Year's Resolution this year. I wanted to keep it simple. If I set several, I'll probably not reach any of them, but if I concentrate on one, well, maybe I can experience a life change. So, this year, I'm trying to get in bed by about 10pm, lights out at 11pm. Of course, there will always be exceptions, but on the nights I get home late, the idea is to be in bed as soon as possible. This is going to be VERY hard for me and will take a while to adjust to and create new habits. I am a TOTAL night-owl. The only reason I'm not a morning person is because I've stayed up too late the night before. If I could just get to bed at a decent hour, I'll wake up feeling more refreshed and hopefully have some time to either work-out and/or have my quiet time in the mornings. That is my hope. I have not done great this week, but better than normal and will continue to work towards some consistency in getting to bed on time! I am not resolving to be in bed by 10pm every night starting Jan 1 going forward, I am resolving to make the changes that are needed to get to that point and to continue to try to make it work until I'm consistent. It's a habit change for me and I recognize that changing a habit can take months. So, I'm resolving to change this during 2010.

I sent out some New Years cards this year since it gave me an extra couple of weeks to get it done and I also had a theme I wanted to carry-out. I had read the verses in Isaiah this past fall and immediately decided it was time to act and "Proclaim the Year of the Lord's Favor". And, I wanted to do a 4-seasons of the year theme. I had already picked out 4 photos to use when I went online to find a card that would work. I was super excited when Tiny Prints had a picture card for 4-seasons...couldn't have been more perfect for the theme I was already going for. My pictures are kind of silly....and not really accurate. I used a pic from Tonya's wedding for my spring picture. It was actually in August, but the weather in Maine was more spring-like and it was the best spring "looking" picture I could find from 2009. Besides, the card doesn't actually say that the picture was taken in the spring, it's just the picture I chose to celebrate that season.

As I started putting my cards together, I began to ask myself what that little verse from Isaiah meant to me. It had been a while since I'd actually read it and came up with the whole idea for my card. What is the Lord's Favor, exactly? I looked up the word Favor in the dictionary and found the following definitions:

-- the state of being approved or held in regard
-- preferential treatment
-- a gift bestowed as a token of goodwill, kind regard, love

The first word that comes to my mind is "blessing". So, who wouldn't want that? To have the King of this World granting His upmost blessings to you? Receiving His preferential treatment? Having confidence that you are living a life He approves of?

So, then, you have to ask how you can Proclaim. What does it mean to Proclaim something? I looked that one up in the dictionary, too:

-- to praise or glorify openly or publicly

Okay, so if you're compelled to praise something openly, you must be personally experiencing it on a very deep level. I keep looking at the second half of that word "claim". The dictionary says that claim means:

-- to take as the rightful owner.

So, I know that I want the Lord's Favor and I know He has made it available to me, but I have to TAKE it as my own. How do I go about doing that? I believe that anyone who has accepted Jesus as their Lord & Savior is going to experience the Lord's Favor on some level. But, I believe there are things we can do in our personal lives to experience that Favor on a deeper level. To receive more and more of His blessing. Walking in His will and Abiding in Him are the 2 phrases that come to my mind when I think about how one can experience more of His Favor. And to me that means being obedient to His plans and experiencing a deep, rich relationship with Him. But, to know His plan and to experience a life with Him requires us to seek Him diligently. This is best done through spending time in the scripture and in prayer.

So, let's wrap this up. This year, I seek to:

1) Spend more time in the scripture and in prayer.
2) As a result, I should experience a deeper relationship with God and His will should be more clear to me. I should see my will more closely aligning with His.
3) A close relationship with God and obedience to His plans will result in His blessing, goodwill, kind regard, love, His preferential treatment (i.e. His FAVOR!)
4) I will choose to make His favor in my life known to those around me. To PROCLAIM it for all to see. With the hopes that He would be glorified and others would want to experience that Favor in their own life.

Not that these things aren't already happening in my life to some extent. I just want to experience it more and I want to be better about sharing How God is working in my life. I pray and hope for YOU to experience the Lord's Favor this year as well - and to proclaim it as your own!

I am VERY excited for twenty-ten. I think it's going to be a great year!