A Verse for 2012

For New Year’s last year, I wrote about choosing a verse of the year in place of making a resolution (read about it here). After much prayer, the verse that the Lord led me to last year was Ephesians 3:17b-19.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I wrote this verse out on a note card and kept it on my bathroom mirror all year, so that I could easily read it each morning. I asked the Lord to really show me what grasping the “wide and long and high and deep” of His love looked like. I want to know that love.

A Resolution? How About a Declaration?

New Year’s Resolutions don’t all that much appeal to me. When I did attempt it, my intentions were good but I found that I was lucky if I was able to keep that resolution through the month of January. I used to get so frustrated with myself that I couldn’t keep that one little commitment. So I gave up on the whole things years ago. Looking back though, I can see why I was unsuccessful. Usually I had a well-intentioned idea, but I didn’t have a plan of action to help me achieve that goal. I have also come to realize another vital compotent in recent years: I need God’s help to achieve these goals. And I realize the importance of having God-centered goals as opposed to human-centered (dare I say, selfish?) goals.