Happy New Year, everyone!
Days before Christmas last year, I went to deliver a wedding album and canvas to one of my sweet couples and what might’ve been a 10 minute visit ended up being 45 minutes long with an extended prayer session. Josh and Bethany’s wedding earlier this year was nothing short of a dream! Each time I get to photograph a wedding, God truly brings my heart more and more alive and confirms over and over again that wedding photography is what He had been preparing me for my whole life and that I am now walking in my purpose and true calling. I could not be more thankful!
As Josh and Bethany were praying over me and my photography business and God’s calling on my life, He brought my word for 2023 to the forefront of my mind. After they were done praying over me, Bethany asked if I got any impressions and I told her that I saw the word BREAKTHROUGH in all caps in my head. She proceeded to tell me that every time she prays for me, breakthrough is what she prays for! I felt like that was definitely God’s confirmation that breakthrough is, indeed, the word He has chosen for me for 2023! However, just in the first 2 weeks of this year, I feel like He has also given me the impression that my word from last year that did not manifest is also supposed to be carried into this year and that I am to expect LIMITLESS to come to fruition this year as well.
During the very last minutes of 2022 and going into 2023, I was sobbing in my husband’s arms as God gently, lovingly convicted me of all the ways I did not trust Him last year and all the ways I tried to take my business and my our living situation into my own hands. And what I thought would be a year of limitlessness last year turned out to be striving, fear-filled, scarcity, and lack. But I know a big reason for that is that I lost sight of God and stopped putting Him first in everything. This year, I am committed to letting Him be the CEO of my business, putting Him first in all things, trusting Him, surrendering to Him, and allowing Him to have His way with me- in mindset, in goal setting, in my marriage, in my business, and in EVERY area of life.
The truth is- there is enough out there for everyone! Lack and scarcity have no place in my mindset, heart, or life. The truth is- God is the God of the impossible, He is limitless, He is able to do EXCEEDINGLY abundantly more than ANYTHING we could ever ask or imagine and I am to thank Him RIGHT NOW for all that He is doing and is going to bring to fruition.
I am committed to no longer living in fear, and no longer hiding. I am putting everything out there and am going to wait in excited anticipation for my dreams to become reality.
The verses that God brought to mind on the first day of this year to go along with the word He’s given me are Isaiah 43:18-19 and Revelation 3:7-8…
“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19
“These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” Revelation 3:7-8
It is true that walking by faith and not by site is what is pleasing to God. I don’t need to keep asking for the same things over and over. God knows what I need and my only job is to put Him first, and to thank Him in advance for answers to prayer. Thanking Him in advance is faith. Thanking Him once I see the answers to my prayers come to fruition is merely gratitude. And we are absolutely to be thankful, of course! But begging Him to answer and only being thankful once I’ve seen an answer is NOT faith. I am committed to walking in faith this year.
