The Lord says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you." --Psalm 32:8 NLT
Guidance was my star word the year I sought, found, and accepted my call to United Presbyterian Church in Sterling, KS. I never dreamed when I got that word that I would end up here! Then last year's star word "coming" became a lesson in trusting God to make things happen (Isaiah 60:22 says "At the right time, I the Lord will make it happen.") and not running too far ahead on my own.
Reading Psalm 32:8 today prompted me to search again for this year's word "aspire" in a Bible app. Here's what I found:
This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be a church leader, he desires an honorable position.” --1 Timothy 3:1 NLT
I hadn't found this one before because in other translations, the word "aspire" is desire, eagerly seek, has a goal, sets his heart on. (Or maybe I dismissed it because I'm already a church leader!) The Greek word is ὀρέγεται oregetai, the third-person-singular form of the verb oregó which means to stretch out, to reach after, to yearn for. I resonate with stretching and yearning more than I do with goal setting. I stretch every morning to work out the achiness and stiffness from sleeping. Stretching feels good for my body. Stretching my mind is usually good, too. But not always. Sometimes it hurts. Sometimes stretching my mind turns up hard truths, or brings me up against someone else's mind. In our current climate of political divisiveness, we've learned to be careful with our mental stretching so as not to poke sleeping bears, so to speak.
Aspiring, goal setting, has not always been a good thing for me, but I have achieved some. I wrestled with the desire to finish my bachelors degree for 25 years and gave up on it many times, but in 2009 I finally finished. I toyed with the idea of becoming a pastor long before I was in a position to go to seminary. I yearned for my husband and I to become homeowners for many years and had entirely given up on it, but God made it happen in 2017.
I'm seeing a connection between my three star words now. My aspirations have come to pass with a whole lot of seeking God's guidance, and a big dose of fully trusting them to God that in God's time they are coming.
Actually, I have been doing more aspiring than I realized. This year I started making a point to write down my "impossible" prayers because I noticed that some things I had thought impossible when I first prayed for them had come to pass. Maybe my issue with goals is that they seem to me to be things that I make happen, and that's been a frustration. I've been getting hung up on the nomenclature and the categorizing.
I asked one of my seminary professors once about salvation: "How much of it is us and how much is God?" I love his answer. It's 100% us and 100% God. A paradox.
Paul says in Philippians 2:12 ". . .work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." The Greek word for "work out" κατεργάζεσθε katergazesthe is very much about doing. Kata intensifies ergazomai, to work. In other words, to work at it with all our hearts, which makes it seem like it's all about what we do, but in context is actually also very much about trusting:
"Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." --Philippians 2:12-13 NLT
In other words, 100% us and 100% God. God blesses our efforts and our prayers. I think the word katergazesthe sounds sort of like stargazing, reaching for the stars, looking to heaven, to the stars, and trusting God to guide our aspirations as we seek to be all that he is making us to be. God multiplies our efforts and our praise.
"Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." --Psalm 37:4
God of mercy sweet love of mine
I have surrendered to Your design
May this offering stretch across the skies
And these Halleluiahs be multiplied
* To read more about star words, click here.
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