Word of the Year 2021
Hello again! Welcome to a new year…
Since I’m basically a bi-annual blogger these days (oops), I figure the New Year is a fitting time to hop back in for a quick statement to the press. I followed the trend a few years back in selecting a “word of the year”, and it has been a truly helpful practice in guiding my devotional studies and personal growth over time. Last year’s word was ABIDE. I will probably continue to dig into that word because it is everywhere in Scripture, and I loved studying it. But I want to pick a new word for a new year, too.
After the graces and challenges of 2020 (many of which are ongoing), 2021 is wide open with potential. Above all, I’m seeking the Lord’s guidance in where the next several months will take me and my family. So, my word for 2021 is LIGHT. I’m looking to Christ, my Life and Light, and His Word as my guide.
I’m especially intrigued by the multiple meanings of this word found in scripture, from a light that shines to a light weight, and even a suffix of the word delight (which was my word of the year in 2019). A quick concordance search produces 414 instances of the word “light” in the Bible. Not surprising that it’s such a prevalent work in the Book about the Light of the world! My devotional plan will involve reading through and studying each one in context.
I will readily admit that the challenges of 2020 have brought much discouragement and darkness — it is easy to get caught up in the broken things of this world. But, in Christ, we have the hope of restoration, true light and new life. This is the joy of the Gospel! We cannot save ourselves from the darkness of our sin and the death it produces. BUT GOD (don’t you just love that phrase?), did not leave us in our sin and made the way for salvation in Christ.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Ephesians 2:4-5
May His light shine brightly before me and in me and through me, so filling every dark corner with His amazing grace that I “may declare the praises of Him who called [me] out of darkness into His wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:9
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