The Year of Rest

After experiencing the Lord mightily in 2013, especially in the context of the name of my Year 2013, I was in great anticipation for what He wanted me to call this coming year - 2014.  

I started Naming the Year in 2011, after reading Ann Voskamp’s blog, A Holy Experience. There is power, growth, blessing in giving a name to your year - allowing the Lord to make you focus on one truth for 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days. This through joy and memory making moments, as well as despairing and disappointing situations. 

2011 was the Year of Rebuilding Relationships. It was my first year. To say the truth, quite a wobbly year, and by December 2011, I wasn’t sure I had accomplished my goal. 

2012 was the Year of Eucharisteo - Being thankful! It was just after I read One Thousand Gifts. It changed my life, my perspective and my picture of God, tremendously! It was a difficult year - two more miscarriages, after 7 healthy babies in 14 years. You can do the math, it wasn’t like I had any problems in getting pregnant or keeping my babies! The Lord sustained me with Eucharisteo.

2013 was the Year of Charis - Grace.

One thing I knew while praying for the Lord’s guidance in the Name of this Year, was that I want to have more of Him… more of His amazing grace that will pull me towards loving Him more and serving Him more, trusting Him more, so I would toil less, wait on Him, let Him be God in my life.

For a week, days before Christmas I prayed day and night. Lord what was the name of 2014 to be?  It came to me the day after Christmas, but I only recognised it a few days later. Three times over a few days I ran into verses with the name and it was only after it was posted on my Facebook wall that it hit me! 

Twice in 48 hours I got the verses in Matthew 11:28

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Then I got Hosea 11:11 in the Knox translation:

“And in their own home, says the Lord, I will give them rest.”

Oh, the joy and peace - I just knew it was right - REST.

The Lord wants me to rest in Him in 2014. Wow, what a hope, expectation, what a promise.

The past 3 months I’m studying Hebrews. And all the time while I was seeking the Lord for a name of this year, I knew it will have to do with the powerful message of Hebrews. The message of growing in my faith, but also in trusting the Lord more and more, pleasing Him more and more with my faith. But the most important, I remembered from the very first verses, “Entering His Rest.”  Oh, how I long to enter His rest, even more so since I’ve experienced his grace so powerful in my life in 2013.

It was almost like mountains lifting off my shoulders. The knowing in this year my goal will be to rest in my Lord. How I’m looking forward to undergo Real-Life-Training in How to rest in the Lord!

When I look back at the passing year, 2013, and how the Lord taught me about His grace in my life, I’m in absolute awe.  Coming from a conservative church as a child, grace was almost…. cheap. Everything was grace. Then in my thirtieth year I came to know the wrath of the Lord, and how He hates sin. He took us through the dessert and He taught us about obedience. He showed us His truths and how He long for us to walk in His truths, throwing off everything that entangled us - sin.  I came to know the Lord as the Lion, and not only the Lamb I knew in my first 25years or so. 

But as in everything when you stumble upon a new truth, you can easily become off balance. I only focused on truth and obedience. I knew I couldn’t earn my salvation, but I was pretty sure I could earn blessings from the Lord through my obedience. And whenever things went wrong, I was convinced I brought if over myself with disobedience of some kind. 

Through counting the gifts in 2012, I gradually came to see a new grace. A totally different grace than what I came to know as a child in the conservative church. Through 2013’s Name, Charis - Grace, I wanted to know the true meaning of grace. I wanted to experience my Lord’s grace. It was beyond what I could ever have thought or asked… The Lord just overwhelmed me with His grace and wiped out all the distorted believes I had about grace. Through real life experiences, often hopeless and desperate situations, He personally taught me about His REAL grace. The grace that He demonstrated to me on the cross, while I was still in the depths of despair, become more real in every day situations of despair and hopelessness. Nothing I did in the past, will do in the future or does in the present, could validate the blessings I received from the Lord in the Year 2013.

It overwhelmed me, day after day, and it was all grace. The beauty of it all was, the more I received His grace, the more I was drawn to God, to His love and to love Him. To love Him for Whom He is, my Heavenly Father.

As I studied the scriptures on Rest the past two days, it was awesome to read the true meaning of “Anapavo” - Rest. 

It describes a cessation from toil, a refreshment, an intermission.  

When I read it alongside Hebrews 4, I came to understand true rest come by diligently hearing the Word of God and to let it profit me, mixed with faith.  That was exactly what I sensed in my spirit, while praying for the Name of 2014.

How I long to be a Giant in Faith!  But for that to surface I need to go through gigantic tests of faith. That is a scary thought. I had to ask myself, why do I want to be a Giant in Faith? The answer: So I can rest, and have peace, while feeding on God’s grace and faithfulness, in this world of toil and hardship, lies and deception. This past year I came to have a taste of His grace, now I am in anticipation to experience all the facets of His rest in the next 12 months, 52 weeks and 365 days.

My prayer for 2014:

"Dear LordThank you for this Word. I’m so looking forward to experiencing your faithfulness in showing me You can give me rest in situations that I’ll see impossible. Just as you already proved Yourself faithful to extend grace in situations where I deserved noting, was beyond hope, with little or total lack of faith. Thank you Lord, I’m waiting on You.In Jesus’ precious NameAmen”

What is the Name of your Year?

With much love

Linnie

This post is linked to:

Obedience: Safe & Secure?

This posting from Large Family Mothering really spoke to my heart:

"We are a planning, plotting, goal-reaching people. We are taught to strategize and have all of our ducks in a row. 

With all of the danger and uncertainty in the world, people are looking for more ways to feel secure; with seminars on how we can make our money work better for us, how to stay out of debt and how to nail-down every aspect of our fiscal existence. 

But we just don’t see it—at least not yet. God is not impressed with all of our vain efforts. Of course, Biblical principles will never steer us wrong—but if we miss the God that speaks these principles, we will still miss the greatest blessing of relationship with Him!

Life is not easy—no matter how one tries to make it seem so. I know some people who live what I call “prophylactic” lifestyles. They don’t just live—they are making sure that they have accounted for every contingency. They exist according to a plethora of checklists for everything from leaving the house to preventive medical tests and exams.

I don’t know if you’re like me, but I have observed that those who love God don’t usually live “safe” existences. I am reminded here of all the saints in the Word who followed God not by "sight" but by "faith" alone. King David certainly loved God—he was declared to be a man after God’s own heart! And yet, he went through so many trying circumstances—fleeing from King Saul after he was anointed, even living among the Philistines for a time, posing as a madman. 

Even Moses was not without trials because he chose to walk with God.

We should not (and can not) plan for every contingency. Safety should not be our preoccupation. Obedience should be our focus with our gaze on Christ! 

Obedience--not sacrifice! 

Instead of looking to experts, we should be training our spirits to tune in to the voice of the Holy Spirit--following His lead.”

The past two weeks was to say the least a shock for my system. It all started the night after my first day of school for 2011. I was in total despair!  That evening as I was laying in the safe arms of my husband, I uttered my fears, my frustrations and my insecurity for home schooling my eight precious children!

Many a day over the past two weeks, I couldn’t get to every child with all their different assignments.  CJ will turn 17 this year!  Theoretically he has only two years of “school” left. I just love the work he’s learning and don’t have a problem helping him, but oh, to find the right time is such a frustration! For his work we need exclusive time for sometimes up to an hour or longer.  

Try to do that between a baby and 3 toddlers!  Then there is my fear, will I be able to teach him everything he needs to know, for whatever he want to do in the near future?

Little Danika is turning 8 this year and needs a great deal of individual attention, with learning to write, read and doing basic maths! (I am a ‘rather late than early-Mom’) 

It just doesn’t come easy!

Heidi-Mari and Josua are at a stage where they can work more by themselves, but I still need to explain new Math’s concept, English grammar, test spelling and find time for their Science narration! 

There’s also Andrew and David who eagerly waits for their share of stimulation every morning. 

Oh, I have the most creative ideas in different areas on how to teach my children, but it isn’t always possible to execute it in real life!

One of my biggest frustrations is my inability to multitask!  Yes, I know mothers can all multitask, but I can only do this to a certain extent!  Let me give you an example.  At this moment Christo and I are both working on our computers.  Christo love to work while listening to music, but I’m totally distracted the moment he turns on the sound. I just can’t concentrate to order my ideas and words.  Now imagine 3-4 little ones, each telling me something while I’m trying to teach Danika a math concept!  Crazy! Or doing laundry and cooking while helping CJ with Physics.  Just not possible for me.

So, I’m a little out of control, with no hope to get back in control in the near future!  Until I read Shelly’s posting and it called me back to basics and gave me peace. 

Why am I home schooling my children?

Because God appointed me to home school my children, to train and teach them in His will and purposes for their lives.

Why do I have this large family?

Because God made me a Mother, with the purpose to raise godly children, who will one day change the world for Him and bring Him glory and praises into everlasting life!

I’m out of control, but God is in control. My life is in no way safe and secure, but living life through God in obedience is the only safe and secure option I know!  Every moment of every day is a surprise and I can plan as much as I like to, within minutes it can all change due to unexpected events in a large family, with many small children! But this way God can work out His plan for our lives.

I can get distracted to easily!  And I thought of it as a vice until Christo showed me it is a virtue, if I hand over control to God in this area.  I feel secure when I’m in control, so if I could multitask and keep my hand on 8 things simultaneously, I would suffocate my children with ‘school’ and we would miss out on many fun moments.  

Since I get distracted so easily, I can very easily decide that “this is it for the day”, lets go bake a cake or play a board game and through away the schedule!

And then I’m a sinner, in whom God still have to do lots and lots of carving and shaping,  polishing and submitting, to make me holy. Some days I can only bow down my head and cry out to God: “I’m a mess!”  Every day has so many stress situations and temptations, during which I mess up big time, especially on relationships. 

There isn’t many places I can turn to for help.  Other large family mothers are busy with their own trials and challenges.  The only place I can turn to, is my God and in such I’m a blessed woman!

God called me for this purpose in life and I need to trust Him with every second of my day!  There is no better place than being in the centre of God’s will, and in having a large family, and home educating them, I know I am!   

God asks obedience and my missing part is whole hearted trust!  I have to recommit myself to whole heartedly trust Him for this year!  Many a day will not be as I wish them to be, but God will pull as through for His glory and at the end it will be nothing to do with me, but all about God!

My Lord can lead me through the fire without burning, and through rivers without drowning! 

(Is 43:2)

Like Peter I need to focus on Jesus and not on the storms around me.

"God knows that, in our heart-of-hearts, our motivation was to know Him, to trust Him, and to obey Him, no matter how it seems to others and no matter what the cost. And so, even if some days it looks as though the Philistines are winning, we are sure that those things we have entrusted to Him, He is able to keep for us and for His everlasting glory."

With Love

Linnie