Here we are at the end of another year! As I reflect on this past year, it has been a very unique and different year for me but I am sure that could be said by many of you. We each have a few major events that we can recall that may have affected and influenced the rest of the year. I had open heart surgery in mid-September of 2023 so I was still in the slow recovery stage by the end of that year. I knew that I would not be able to physically do all the normal things I had been accustomed to and just taken for granted. It would turn out to be a whole year of rest and rehabilitation after I had to schedule hip replacement surgery in August this year. I am doing amazingly well and as I said last week, I hope to learn a new sport – pickleball – this coming year! (I am almost ready).

At the end of every year, I try to set aside some reflective time to listen to the Lord. I will usually go back over my journal for the year and pull out any insights that will help me prepare for the next year. I also listen for Him to speak any specific words of instruction, assignments, or directions for the coming year. I write down the areas that need improvement as well as those things that may no longer need to be a part of my life in the coming year.  Last year I received only two things that have helped to keep me in a place of peace amid all the events of the year. He told me to “be flexible” and to “be quick to obey” His leadings. For someone who has led a very full and active life, this proved to be very wise instructions. I did not feel guilty for taking an afternoon nap or not working on every project or opportunity that presented itself.  I think those two instructions will be part of my life from now on! I have even learned how to say “no” to a few things which in the past would have been difficult for me to do.

The word came to Jeremiah the prophet after the Lord revealed His plans for the children of Israel that had been in captivity. I believe they can speak to each of us today. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me, and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29: 11-13) God had encountered Jeremiah when he was a very young man and called him to be a prophet to the nations. I believe God’s word to Jeremiah speaks to each one of us today. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I sanctified you (set you apart). I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) Your call and my call may not be the call of Jeremiah or your pastor or one of your heroes of the faith or another iconic figure. Still, it is a very specific assignment that was in the heart of God before you were conceived in your mother’s womb. We are the ones who esteem one person above another but the Lord is looking for those whose hearts desire to please Him and walk in obedience to His will for their life. “2 Chronicles 16:9 states: “For the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…”

Only Jesus did that perfectly, but He is our example and role model as well as our Savior and Lord. He overcame temptation the same way we do – choosing to please His Father and following the Word of God even when it was difficult. Our temptations are not on the same level as the ones Jesus faced, but nevertheless, when we choose His ways over our own, the Holy Spirit empowers us to complete His plans and purposes for our lives.

I think of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She lived in a small, seemingly insignificant town. Nathaniel, one of Jesus’s twelve said of Nazareth “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:43-49) It was not a significant town in the eyes of many. And yet, the Lord looked down into the heart of a young virgin who was engaged to be married and found the vessel that He could entrust the life of His Son. When the angel came to visit her and tell her what her assignment and destiny were, she said “Be it unto me according to your word.” She had to deal with accusations (unfaithfulness to Joseph or perhaps the suspicion that Joseph was Jesus’s father). She had to travel a good distance to Bethlehem while nine months pregnant to fulfill the command of the governmental leaders but ultimately to be where the scriptures prophesied that Messiah was to be born. They had to flee to Egypt when Jesus was very young to escape the wrath and jealousy of Herod. Her life was not easy and yet she made sure that Jesus was ready when the time came to fulfill His preordained mission. She had numerous other children who probably heard Mary’s encouragements and exhortations to Jesus as He grew up and yet none of them believed He was Messiah until the end of His natural life. He lived His first 30 years in that small community as a carpenter but did not do anything that would cause his siblings to believe He was the Messiah. Only Mary knew and believed. Only Mary was there until the end of His earthly life.

Down through the ages millions of believers have attempted to honor Him with their lives. Some became well known but far more lived in obscurity, fulfilling their role in history no matter how insignificant it seemed. Some knew from an early age what the Lord had called them to do with their lives. Others, by far the majority of us, have lived their lives affecting and influencing their seemingly small sphere of influence. I have often thought, what if just one of those people I have been able to impact for the Kingdom of God was called to be a Billy Graham or someone else who does have a highly visible role that has and will influence many, many others. Think of all those people you know who are having a positive impact on humanity. Someone (or some ones) influenced them with their own lives. Many times it is a godly mother who has quietly shaped that child and imparted the kind of character needed to fulfill their high calling. I could list a number of them from the lives I have studied or read about. One who may be somewhat familiar to many church attendees is Susanna Wesley, the mother of eighteen children including the great hymn writer Charles Wesley and his brother John who was the founder of Methodism. Her quiet life raising godly children has affected the lives of millions of people. One of Charles’ hymns included a verse that I heard someone explain and expound upon in such a way that it broke something off of me (a wrong belief) in a moment. I have never been the same and have shared that testimony numerous times when it was appropriate.

Live your life in such a way that you please the Lord in all you do – walking in obedience to His words and His ways. You may be a world changer without ever leaving your own home or hometown. Use every opportunity to be a positive influence on someone else’s life. You never know how your words and actions may be the very thing that sets someone on their destined life course.