Happy New Year!
Will the New Year be happy? Is there anything we can do about it? Of course there are lots of things we cannot control, but we do have power over our own priorities, attitudes, responses and self-care.
Once again I’ve decided to choose a ‘verse for the year’: something that I can keep coming back to, learn by heart, carry with me through all the ups and downs of life and allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate for me in different ways at different times. In previous years I’ve found it exciting to see how something that I thought I knew could continue to inspire me in new and surprising ways and inform a wide range of situations, feelings and experiences. I’ve found that the more I thought about it, the more of God I found in it – it’s one of the glorious mysteries of Scripture that with the Holy Spirit in the equation, it’s more than just words alone.
So how to choose the verse (or verses – I chose a passage of 4 verses this year): I think the key is not to get too hung up on waiting for the ‘writing on the wall’ or the ‘voice from heaven’ that will tell you in loud and booming tomes exactly what you need to know. I rarely hear that voice so loud and clear if I’m honest, and for me it’s more a process of seeing if something jumps out at me / just choosing something and praying that God will teach me through it. I’ve put a number of ‘likely candidates’ in the notes for the New Year journalling kit (get one here) but at the end of the day, there are more useful verses in Scripture than we can count so go to something that you are vaguely familiar with and just plump for something that looks interesting and challenging / upbuilding!
And then write it out. Everywhere. Diary, planner, journal, notebooks the lot! Carry it with you. Learn it by heart and see where it takes you. The first thing I do is to make a journal page with colours and images, and then make another one, and maybe a few more after that! This gets me exploring different angles as I pray that God will help me mine the riches he has for me.
I use my journal to map my relationship with the verse to see how it’s meaning for me develops as time goes on, and to note God’s grace as he travels with me through the year, gently leading and teaching me as we go. I love looking back at the end of a year and seeing how far me and that verse (or verses) have come together.
This year I decided to add an extra dimension to studying my verses. Watch below to find out more.
Get the journalling kit on Etsy or Email Jane direct. The kit has everything you need to get you started: journal, notes, Bible study prompts and co-ordinating crafty supplies to help you create beautiful pages around your thoughts and prayers.