Sheen Here we go again to our yearly gratitude list and faith goals. How many of your faith goals have been accomplished this year? I don’t know if you are excited to look back on the things you’ve experienced in 2020 or to make plans for 2021. But with all that has happened – volcanic eruption, pandemic, death of a loved one, home quarantined for several months, devastating earthquakes and typhoons, businesses shutting down, job loss, and a lot more – we can only agree to the fact that 2020 brought so much fear, worry, anxiety, and horrific pain to a lot of people.
No matter what we’ve been through, God has a word for all of us,
“Be still, and know that I am God!”
Knowing that we have a sovereign and almighty God, we can be sure that God is in control of everything in spite of what we are seeing. We may not understand why we have to go through this and that, but one thing is for sure, God is strengthening our faith. If a lot of things went down this year, one thing has to go up! And that’s our FAITH!
Faith is believing that God gave us these trials not to test if we will fail or not because He already knows our limitations. He is fully aware of our strengths and weaknesses. But He gave us these challenges for us to know that we can! We can overcome! Not with our own strength but by His power and amazing grace.
Believe it or not, God has been busy doing transformative work in each and every one of us. We are all forced to get out of our comfort zone. And that is not a bad thing! We learned to take risks, to try new activities or hobbies we haven’t done before, to open up a new business and to be creative. We learned to persevere and endure hardship. We learned to wait and be hopeful. We learned to value the things we usually take advantage of. We learned to love and serve selflessly to our family. We learned to FORGIVE.
In a nutshell, we are all LEARNING and GROWING!
God is speaking to our hearts right now and He wants us to trust Him that He work for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). He wants us to be hopeful that the One who knows the beginning and the end has a great plan for His creation. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
I hope I have encouraged you to believe that God is working behind the scenes. Jesus is our most faithful friend! Trust Him, He will never let us down.
With all that’s been said, get ready with your pen and paper and start writing your gratitude list and faith goals! You can get these free printables here.
I’m Thankful For….
Since most of us will be staying and celebrating this holiday season at home, we have a lot of time to reflect on everything God has done for us this 2020. I know it’s been one of the toughest year for almost everyone but I believe there’s always something to be thankful for even in bad times. Writing our gratitude list can help open our eyes to the goodness of the Lord in our lives. It helps strengthen our faith knowing that He has been faithful to us in our ups and downs.
Let me share some of the many things I’m grateful for this year. 2020 is memorable for me because this is the time I became a PLANTITA! Since we are forced to stay at home, I fell in love with plants. I became passionate in adding greens inside the house. Not only do they have a lot of physical, mental, and emotional benefits but they can also make a good décor at home. I bet a lot of moms or singles out there will definitely agree on this!
Check out my post on Mamacademy PH to read more about how indoor plants can be one of God’s blessings this quarantine.
Before you start making your list, pray first that God would open your eyes to see His mighty work in you and your family’s lives. You can be grateful even in the smallest things like the people God sent to help you when you have nothing else left, a family or friend remembered you and your current situation so they sent some cash for your needs, or you might have loss a job but God opened a better opportunity for you. Ask Him to open your eyes for everything you have and has blessed you with, and not on what you haven’t.
In 2021, I have Faith that God will…
This is also the best time to set goals and make plans for the coming year. We might been hit hard this 2020 , but a new year always brings hope that things can and will get better for us.
Perhaps you are already thinking what to write for your New Year’s Resolution. It’s not actually bad but having faith goals would be better. So what’s the difference between the two? Technically they are the same. We make goals we want to achieve and take the necessary steps to make them happen. However, faith goals are the things we believe to happen thru God’s intervention. We try to accomplish our goals not by our own strength but by depending on God’s power, strength, and grace. We believe that apart from Him we can do nothing. And so we entrust those goals in His hands knowing that even when we make our own, His’ are still the best for us.
God always listens to our prayers. He knows we had a lot of plans that had failed this 2020 and He understood how we may have felt. Yet He wants us to make plans and goals again for the New Year – to believe and hope that even if the future is unknown, we can be confident of who holds our future.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Luke 11:9-10
He desires for us to ask and come to Him so we may know His perfect will for us. Through reading the Bible, His word, we’ll see and understand that His plans are not as shallow as what we make for ourselves. His plans are deeper, more meaningful, and lasts through eternity.
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
John 15:7
This verse also reminds us that when we ask God, we should first abide in His word. According to Google dictionary, abide means to follow, obey, and hold on to something or someone. God is not a genie that we can ask whatever we wish and presto!, we have what we’ve ask for. Upon knowing His word in the Bible, we need to obey and apply them in our lives. Then as we live by His ways, we begin to ask things that are in line with what He desires for us. And Truly, God answers prayers that are according to His will.
In writing your faith goals, first and foremost, you pray for wisdom, guidance, and leading. I also encourage you to be specific as possible. Make sure you have SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time based) for the following:
- Spiritual
- Health
- Family
- Financial
- Career
- Personal Dreams
To know more on how to use SMART goals as your guide in goal setting, visit this blog post from Flourishingtoday.com.
One of my faith goals early next year is to be able to publish my first book. Yay!! I’ve never seen myself as I writer but God has revealed that this is His will for me. I’m so excited to announce it and I’ll be sharing more details very soon. So stay tuned!
You are welcome to share your gratitude list and faith goals in the comment section so I can pray for yours as well. Prayer is powerful! It can do wonders!
We can always respond positively to life’s challenges. Let’s choose to bounce back from all our setbacks in life. Remember, God is always with us. He hears our prayers and only desires the best for us. Let’s come to Him not just in this special time of the year but in every moment of our lives.
Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year from my family to yours.
Love lots,
I love your commitment to gratitude and to your goals. It takes such discipline to write a book, especially on the topic of marriage and broken marriages.
Thank you Chavon! It was hard work but the journey was definitely rewarding!
I need to put my finances in God’s hands. As of March 14th I have no more pandemic unemployment. I too want to write book. Actually it is already written and edited. But I am terrified of someone stealing my idea because in 2020 I was poached several times and then again recently. So I need to put in His hands which is hard. 2020 was an awakening renaissance for me amongst death, suffering and change. So I hope to take that awakening and grow it in 2021.
Thank you for sharing Erica! I hope God would give you the courage to give birth to this book that you’ve already written. You never know how many people might be blessed with it. God is always with you!