In 2023 I committed to reading/listening through the Bible in chronological order. This morning this commitment had me in Revelation chapters one through five. I love how God’s word always meets us where we are when we come to it with a submitted heart to seek His face and hear His voice. From the praises of the living creatures and the twenty-four elders I went into a spirit of praise and clicked play on my worship playlist. The first song sang, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” and of course that sent me to Psalm 150 which then sent me though reading more of the psalms of praise.

Then I recalled that on my 47th birthday, this past December 12th, I shared the following on my Facebook page:

“On December 9th 2001 I wholly surrendered my life to Jesus. I did so in faith of the promises He made to me in His word through Psalm 25. So at the age of 25 the trajectory, the purpose, the driving force of my life changed through trusting in the word of the WORD. 

Since that time my life has followed the Psalms. Each year the corresponding Psalm for the year of my life has met me and carried me through that particular year. 

So as I stepped into my 47th year of life reading Psalm 47 and seeking the LORD for insight as to what awaits me in this season… this is what I have received from Him thus far:

Sing My praises Nicole.

Remember I AM King.

Let Me restore your heart.

Let Me restore your joy.

You are chosen by Me.

You are loved by Me.

So sing.

I’ll start with a clap. I’ll move to a shout. I’ll remember that my Jesus is AWESOME. I’ll remember that I am His chosen and loved. I’ll trust in His sovereign reign over all the earth. I’ll sing because my King is worthy.”

In light of recalling this past moment with the Lord, I went to Psalm 147 this morning and read,

“Praise the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;

For it is pleasant and praise is becoming.

The Lord builds up Jerusalem;

He gathers the outcasts of Israel.

He heals the brokenhearted

And binds up their wounds.

He counts the number of the stars;

He gives names to all of them.

Great is our Lord and abundant in strength;

His understanding is infinite.”

(Psalm 147:1-5)

Once again my God has reminded me to sing. He has spoken to me in song every day since my forty-seventh birthday. I know thats only been a couple of weeks, but it still brings peace to my heart as I recall His faithfulness to keep His Word and it is restoring my hope in hearing the voice of HIs Spirit and knowing when it is the word of my Savior leading and guiding and not my own stubborn self-determined will. 

In our world January 1st begins a new year. It is a time, an opportunity to have a type of jubilee, a type of a day of atonement… well maybe not that deep.Those are pretty big analogies, perhaps a better one is that the coming new year is like a game that has been a hard fought battle and the scoreboard is tied up again making it, in that moment, a new ballgame. 

This could happen in the 1st quarter or the 4th or even in overtime. I don’t know where you are in your life. Maybe you are reading this and you are still in your 1st quarter and you think you have the whole game to go, but maybe you know you are already in overtime and it’s pretty intense. The adrenaline is pumping and you are purposely having to choose to fight the anxious reality of the moment so that you can sit still long enough to just breathe.  

Whatever quarter you are in, now is the time to learn from the past and evaluate. Now is the time to lean into the Coach and listen, learn, and head back out onto the court with a new hope and excitement that the game is not over, it is not lost. We still are here to win. 

“The Lord supports the afflicted;

He brings down the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;

Sing praises to our God on the lyre,

Who covers the heavens with clouds,

Who provides rain for the earth,

Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.

He gives to the beast its food,

And to the young ravens which cry.

He does not delight in the strength of the horse;

He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man.

The Lord favors those who fear Him,

Those who wait for His lovingkindness.”

(Psalm 147:6-11)

This last week of 2023 lean into the Word of the LORD. Let me encourage you to spend this last week of 2023 seeking His face. Let Him remind you who He is.

“And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”

And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” (Revelation 4:8-11)

This past Sunday as one of our Pastors taught from Luke 1:26-38 as we focused on the last Advent Sunday he shared how Mary went from simply hearing this truly life altering and life threatening call on her from God to accepting it. He pointed out how in order for her to get from “How can this be?” to “Let it be.” she had to first find out where she was. 

She did this by looking back. She did this by drawing on all the promises of God and His faithfulness throughout the generations. She did this by remembering that nothing is impossible with God. She found out where she was, who she was, and then she believed and boldly walked into whatever lay ahead for her knowing that God was with her. 

Where are you beloved? Whose are you? Can you say, “Here I am Lord, I am Yours.”? Will you step into 2024 submitted and resolute to the will of the One who created you and has called you to step out of darkness and into His marvelous light? Will you lean into His Word and seek His face? Will you let the mirror of HIs Word and voice of Spirit help you review this past year, these past years, through His infinite understanding? 

If you have breath, let it be for the praises of the Lord. Let 2024 be a new ballgame, no matter how many times the scoreboard has been tied up again and again as you have fought the good fight of faith. Stay in the game.

“Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” (Daniel 12:3)

We have lots of windows in our home. The entire downstairs back wall is almost all windows. On a beautiful sunny day I never have to turn on a light because the light of the sun shining through these windows is enough to light the whole downstairs and heat it up in the winter time. I’ve been guilty more than once on a cold winter day of getting behind the dropped curtains and leaning my back against the window and just soaking in the heat and light. 

There are many days that I have been home working in the house by the light of these windows and as the end of the day approaches I have sat down to cuddle up with our pups and read a book or watch a little tv until my husband gets home from work. Then, he has more than once walked in the door and immediately flipped on the light and asked me “Why are you sitting in the dark?” My response,”I didn’t realize it had gotten dark.”

As I sat there the light around me had so slowly become darkness that I had acclimated to the darkness. My eyes and mind had simply adjusted to the darkness and I was not able to see how dark my surroundings had actually become until someone with fresh eyes walked in, someone with a different perspective, someone who had not been sitting in the same space with me the entire time, came in and pointed out the darkness and turned on the light.

In Genesis 1:1-4 we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.”

In John 1:1-5 we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” 

In John 3:19-21 Jesus teaches us, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

In John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

In John 12:45 Jesus tells us, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”

When Jesus arrived on the scene the world did not realize how dark it had become. Even those who knew the Word of God, who had the Law and the Prophets of God in their hands, had become so acclimated to the darkness that they were oblivious to how dark the darkness had become. In John 9 we read of an account of one of the times that Jesus healed a blind man and now is being interrogated by the religious authorities of the day. In John 9:39 Jesus says, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”

You see when I was sitting in that dark room waiting for my husband to come home. I could have responded to his turning on the light in two ways. I could have been there in the room struggling to read my book in the very dim light and having been too engrossed in my pursuit of the story not realizing how much my eyes were strained and then the light brings relief because now I can see. And I am so very thankful for the light.

Or I could be zoned out watching our television. Engrossed in a false reality of my own choosing and when he flips on the light it blinds and distracts me. Causing me to even possibly get irritated because now the light has blinded me from being able to stay in the false reality I was very comfortable in. And I am not thankful at all for the light. 

However, I can still become thankful, if I let it wake me up. If I let it help me see how much time I have wasted engrossed in a mindless false reality and it moves me to get up and get busy in the light being the light. Because Jesus also said in Matthew 5:14-15, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” 

We celebrate Christmas with lights. We celebrate with lights because Christmas is when we purposely set our minds on the day that the Light of the world became flesh and dwelled among us. This Christmas let that Light shine. Take time this Christmas season to find a space, a moment, to let Jesus pull back the veil of your heart and mind and rest your back against the window of His Word and soak up its heat and light. 

Let His Word shine in every area of your life. If you hear His voice ask, “Why are you sitting in the dark?” It’s okay to not argue back, to not justify how you got there, but to just simply say I didn’t even realize it was dark. Then get up and come to His light and shine. 

We are called to be His Light, we are called to shine in the darkness, not sit in it and certainly not to be intimated or afraid of it, because no matter how dark the darkness, all it takes is a little light. So if the Light of His life is in us, everywhere we go, darkness loses power. This Christmas season, let every twinkling light remind you of the Light that separates darkness, of the Light that came into this world, of the Light that is the life of us all, of the Light that we are called to be. This Christmas be reminded and encouraged to be His Light and SHINE.

It’s December 10th 2023. I referred someone to my blog yesterday to access some free downloadable Bible studies and this reminded me of how very long it has been since I posted. I still write all the time. I write short studies and outlines that can be delivered in 20 minutes or less because that is where I am in this season of life and sport ministry. I write Bible studies that go out every week to female coaches and coaches wives. Therefore, time to write here has been limited. However, as I move into 2024 it is my desire to revive this blogging ministry.

If you take the time to travel through this blog you will see that the very first post is on the day that my husband and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. In 2024 we will celebrate our 25th. I may spend this month of 2023 re-reading and CRINGING as I do. I thought I was so wise and knew so much and was so ready to instruct the world on how to be a good Christian wife and mother. I had so much to learn.

I had so much to learn and the greatest lesson I learned is that I have so much to learn.

So here is the plan. Proven Path Ministries blog revived in 2024. I will post so randomly. I will not worry about perfect grammar. I will not concern myself with formatting perfectly. So it will most likely be a slight mess… but if you can handle all that come along with me for the read.