Every year, I ask Abba to give me His word for the year. What are we going to work on together, LORD? This year is no different. But October, November, and December were full of surprises of a medical nature. I spent two and a half days in the hospital and a trip to the ER. And my husband was in the hospital for a week.
I don’t know about you, but surprises like these threw my ‘normal’ life into a tailspin. So, while I thought about my ‘word for the year,’ specific requests were missing.
Still, on December 31st, I asked, “Abba, what is the word You want me to focus on in 2024?”
“Trust,” He said, “and Peace.”
Later, I opened my Jesus Calling devotional by Sarah Young and read, “I have designed you to have no sufficiency of your own. You are an empty jar set apart for holy use. I want you to be filled with My presence and permeated with My peace.”
He was speaking, and I was listening. I was also wondering what living lessons in trust and peace were coming my way. And I didn’t have long to wait.
On the afternoon of January 3rd, my heart started racing like crazy. I took my blood pressure, and it was over the moon. I called my cardiologist. He told me to get to the hospital ASAP. However, our usual hospital, where our doctors are on staff, was in a different crisis.
Someone hacked their computer system. They couldn’t access their records, and many high-tech machines would not run. So, my doctor told me to go to another hospital instead.
While at that hospital, I passed out, and the doctors there realized I needed a cardiologist and higher-tech equipment to detect what was going on. So, I took a trip by ambulance to a bigger hospital in the city. In short order, they put me in the Cardiac ICU, where I remained for five days.
Meanwhile, our kids took off work to care for Mike at home. The day after I went to the hospital, Mike finally got the procedure done on his back that he needed.
Are you getting the picture? Trust was getting a workout, and we were only four days into the new year.
It’s two weeks later now, the kids have gone back to their lives and work. I am slowly regaining my energy and Mike is regaining some of his strength. I am on call now 24/7 but God’s grace is carrying both of us. We have had to trust Him to have peace. Without trust, there would not be any peace. He daily meets our needs.
Neighbors have brought in food and given us rides when we needed them. Neither one of us could drive for the first week I was home. And I still have one week to be extra nice to my left arm. They want the pacemaker to be firmly at home in my chest.
The county provides physical therapists and nurses to check on us twice a week and keep us on track with healing—for free. A van from the county also comes to the house now and takes Mike to his treatment and brings him home three times a week—again, for free. The local thrift store provided a walker and two shower chairs for us to use without cost. A wonderful guy from church came over and helped Mike get down and up the stairs on the days he goes to treatment until I could help him. And prayers from many points on the globe are going up daily for us. We are so blessed!
Here it is February 1st, and I realize many of the things I’ve been able to do daily for years were interrupted over these last two months. There’s been little ‘sufficiency of my own.’ I am wondering at this point, what is yet to come.
I am learning to praise Him no matter the circumstances and trust Him no matter how life-threatening things appear. I am more aware of how deeply He knows us, knows what we need, and gets it to us when we need it. I still don’t know what the next hour, day, or week holds, but I am trusting Him more and more, knowing He goes before us and is with us. As He is with you.
Earlier, I tried to write, but my CEO, Yahweh Elohim, had other plans. The words would not come. When He said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing,” (John 15:5 ) He meant it. Oh, you can do something on your own, but there isn’t any life in it.
In January 2020, He told me, “Anointing manifests through rest. It flows unhindered in TRUST. All your efforts are empty striving unless they come out of obedience and rest.” So, in the middle of my new life as a caretaker, I am doing my best to rest and trust.
Has He given you a word for this year? Share it in the comments. I’d love to hear it.
I will end with this well-known scripture that sets a path for this year.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Shalom ♥
Hear God's Heart 
My word for the year from God, is REST. He is asking me to step back from a lot of the busyness that has permeated my life for the last couple of years and simply rest in Him, so I’m trusting Him and putting down things He is leading me to surrender. May our Father continue to minister to you both and heal you as you surrender in trust and obedience to Him. Sheilagh
Sheilagh, rest is the word He gave me a few years ago. I even wrote a devotional called, Rest, “A 60 Day Devotional to Reset Your Soul.”
Each entry is a short word..a paragraph or two that Abba told me about rest followed by one or two scripture references. You can get it on Amazon.😊
God bless you with many truths about rest.♥️
Hi Ellen. Thank you for your reply and encouragement. I’ll look up your book on Amazon. Sheilagh
PRAYERS FOR CONTINUED HEALING FOR YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND, YOUR TRIAL AND FAITH SO ENCOURAGE ME. I AM ENCLOSING MY MESSAGE TO FRIENDS FOR THE NEW YEAR
Thank you for the update your books have helped me stay on the straight and narrow path. My prayers for you both as you continue to receive Healing and know that I appreciated your truthfulness. I am enclosing a short email I sent to my friends for the n
Blessings of all kinds to you, your husband, and your family. Our family had a couple years of crazy medical stuff and can understand the magnitude of what you have been experiencing. Our prayers are with you. We too learned that peace comes through learning to trust, thereby being able to rest fully in Him.
The word He gave me is See I’m an doing a new thing, do you not perceive it? I know that sounds simple as a new new year always brings new things, but this is different. Our church has imploded, people around us are deconstructing their faith. Several of us have been meeting for a year or so to simply sit at His feet and seek His will. He has begun to move in our area/church members in incredible ways – really bringing us back to the simplicity of breaking bread, joyful, vertical praise, prayer, and all engaging in discussing the things of God and what He has put in our hearts. He is purging us, equipping us, and it is a glorious thing! Waiting excitedly and expectantly to see what the year holds…
Thanks for answering. God is definitely at work reforming us for His purposes. I am blessed by your testimony and your story. God bless you and your congregation.
Nice 👍
WOW, I have had to trust this year as well, and try to keep the peace I guess which I haven’t done so well. But the devil has attached my family, been going on since right before Thanksgiving with sickness with me and my son, back and forth. But the last 2 months I’ve been fighting sore throats and cough. This past month we have had to deal with the devils accusations, 2 people have claimed that we have stolen from them and lie. We have been told we are going to hell. But we haven’t done anything they have said, we don’t have time to as we are in ministry at our church with the kids/youth ministry. We are supposed to go to kids training out of state the end of this month and we have no where to take my son because this is family we are dealing with that have accused us. So we are having to trust God with this situation. This morning when I got up to read the bible, God told me to read Psalm 34, and verse 5 stood out. I was amazed. They looked to Him and were radiant (KJV says lightened, that word means to sparkle, be cheerful, to flow together, be lightened), and their faces were not ashamed. If we look to Him we will be cheerful and sparkle, and our faces will not be ashamed (even in a storm because we are looking to Him). If we are not rooted and grounded in Christ, we would not be able to withstand the storm.
God bless you Wildhorse. May you continue to recognize His presence. It will help you navigate the storms.
SHALOM,, yes these past several years have been one of searching , seeking and for me hearing my Fathers voice say. “ Trust me Iam your Father your husband and I know all things!!!!
I am the mother of 7 ages 39 – 16. My 2nd husband and I married when my 2 oldest sons were 13 and 15 and at the age of 38 I had our 1st daughter in 2000. 2007 at the age of 46 I had our 5th child.
The Lord has never failed me and his faithfulness has been unending! My husband in 2016 took his life and our world became a daily walk of faith for all of us!
Financially , emotionally and physically the trials and mountains that laid before me and my 5 kids at times were grueling.
Gods promises are true and at 1:30am this morning God woke me up to get with him for peace. I don’t really even know how I came across your post but God has had me meditating on Psalms 91 for a while. This morning the words SHIELD and BUCKLER was what he accentuated off the page.
“His shield of truth is righteousness that stands against every enemy. It restores life to every circumstance with revelation that comes from the Holy Spirit life in us.
That,, is PROFOUND amazing and life changing understanding it in this way!!!
BUCKLER, shutting us in with God separating us from the enemy!!! LIFE CHANGING!!!
A sense of protection, peace, rest in my mind takes this scripture and every word God has given to us for me to another level of understanding!
The injustice and corruption very similar to what we have witnessed in our nation is what life after my husband took his life has been for us. An angry mother in law, wicked lawyers only in it for part of a very large estate with fraud and collusion, we need closure (as we never saw my husband deceased) and Justice!
The enemy has to pay back SEVENFOLD what was stolen. And God is a God of Justice I stand on this. The assets and legal fraud that was commuted and stolen is so disturbing as I still am having to deal with assets trying to be taken from my family.
I need prayer, wisdom, and I want to personally thank you for sharing Gods words and guidance upon you.
May you be BLESSED abundantly , heal and be encouraged as God’s faithful servant!!
SHALOM❤️
Ruth Ann, my heart goes out to you. He hears your cries. May He somehow, some way bring closure to you and your family. Dreams are often the tools He uses. I’ve found that He often chooses ways to meet my needs that look irrational and uncomfortable. But in the end, I see His hand and all I can do is thank Him. Your ability to trust Him is growing at every. May He give you eyes to see the good in the middle of all the struggles. The more you can celebrate who He is the stronger you will become. God bless you and your family.
Dearest Mary Ellen! I feel so very bless to have come across your writings and teachings. I woke up in fear as my daughter was on the phone with me hours before going to bed and said, “ mom! I forgot to tell you of a dream I had !” she said she had a dream and I was dead in the bed and her and my husband in the room.
So I didn’t have the best feeling going to sleep after hearing that and, I had went to bed with this on my mind and woke up at midnight-ish scared.
I finally woke my husband up and he prayed over me, I prayed, talked to the Lord about Love / fear,, then I began to play psalms 91. I found you wanting to look deeper into a few words and deepen their meaning.
I feel much more at peace as I’ve been reading your studies on psalms 91! It’s really awesome how you break down the words with numbers and meaning!
I wish so much I understood this better! I know the Holy Spirit can help me! I’ve been a believer since my 20’s
I’m 54 now 🙂
It’s amazing how life was so happy go lucky in your 20’s but in living you understand the deepness of a life totally sold out to The true and living God Yaweh!
May God bless you and I’m certain His healing will continue to abound in your life! I look forward to reading and learning more about your books. I just orders one “ the armor of God is more than you think”
God bless you sweet lady, and soldier of The Lord!
P.S my word for this year is “Trust”
Thank you for sharing this with me. Truly TRUST, I believe, is going to be a banner word for all of us this year. But Abba has already gone before us and everything to meet ever challenge is in place for us. He is the ultimate strategist and provider. Suzi, you and I and so many others are going to come through stronger this year, because we have Him in us and with us. God bless you.
May Father God comfort, encourage, strengthen, protect, heal and provide all that you and your husband need. May He grant you perfect peace today and in the days ahead.
Thank you, Karen. God is truly hearing your prayers and many others. My family and I are at peace and so thankful for His presence. God bless you.