Happy New Year - 2018 - TODAY - A Special Message from Lena Nelson Dooley

Here we are on the first day of 2018. 

I saw this meme on Facebook yesterday, and I wanted to share it with you:

One of my best friends is a missionary who lives in the Rio Grande Valley, near the southern tip of Texas. We've been friends for over 40 years. We've been through a lot of life events together and shared family prayers and praises.

Several years ago, we started asking God for a word for the next year before the end of the last one. We started discussing it in a phone call on October 2017. I had participated in an author/reader event the day before the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in September. The event was CRAVE HIM! It was a very special time of worship, interviews, getting acquainted times, games, food, fun, and books. 

As I talked to her about it, she said, "Lena, maybe Crave Him should be your word for 2018. Your voice comes alive when you are talking about that."

I thought about it and decided it might be a good ideas. But I'm always open to hearing the word straight from God.

In late November and December, we had two or three sermons at our church that spoke another word to me.

Today!

You might be asking, what does that mean as it relates to a word for the year?

What brought it on was when someone near and dear to me chose to do something that hurt me. Now this person didn't do it to hurt me, but this person should have realized that it might.

I don't know if you've experienced anything like this, but I figure most everyone has. The problem with something like this is that the Enemy of Our Souls will jump right in immediately and start reminding us of everything that person ever did that hurt us.

Those remembrances start playing through our minds like recordings whispering in our ears.

"Remember when ______ did this? And remember when ______ did this ..." and on ... and on. All of the things happened, but that person didn't really do any of it to hurt you.

God began to tell me to let go of things in the past. They were done and gone ... and I had forgiven the person already for everything from the past.

At the same time, there was something that will happen sometime in the future that has been a long time coming. When I have a personal promise from God, I always want it now, not on His timetable (which is always the PERFECT time). 

Yes, God wants us to cling to His personal promises to us, but He doesn't want us to try to make them happen in our own strength.

One of the things that spoke so loudly in my spirit about the word TOPDAY was a part of a sermon Max Lucado preached at our church. I contacted his ministry to see if I could use it on my blog. So with his permission, I'm using a passage from his book. 

 MEDITATION

Today, I will live today.

Yesterday has passed.

Tomorrow is not yet.

I'm left with today.

So, today, I will live today.

Relive yesterday? NO.

I will learn from it.

I will seek mercy for it.

I will take joy in it.

But I won't live in it.

The sun has set on yesterday.

The sun has yet to rise on tomorrow.

Worry about tomorrow? To what gain?

It deserves a glance, nothing more.

I can't change tomorrow until tomorrow.

Today, I will live today.

I will face today's challenges with today's strengths.

I will dance today's waltz with today's music.

I will celebrate today's opportunities with today's hope.

Today

Anxious for Nothing copyright 2017, Max Lucado.

So I will thank God for what He is doing in my life today, and I pray His special blessings for you every day of 2018. All of you are so precious to me.