Blessings on your 2014, and if you think of me, pray for mine too. May God bless both of us.
Thank you for reading, and for your encouragement!

Lots to chew on in your comment.I am going to read it again carefully when I less tired (almost bedtime here in Oxford).

Lots of bloggers choose One Word as a theme and reminder for the year. Interestingly, you’ve mentioned my One Word. Alignment. It’s becoming really important to me to be in alignment with Jesus, and with the flow of God’s power and purposes.

For instance, if I am not at peace, I just stop and pray and repent and ask forgiveness and adjust until I feel in alignment again, able to ask him to “bless me, indeed,” in Jabez’s phrase.

And I want to figure out where he is active, what he is doing in my life, what he is blessing and sort of join it.

Another thing which has brought significant change in my life is reading “The Circle-Maker” by Batterson, and starting a notebook with a page for each plan, dream, hope, ambition, activity or precious person in my life, and steadily praying through it, a few pages a day. And things are beginning to shift.

I never left, Anita. I’ve been reading your blog but haven’t taken the opportunity to respond.

One thing to add: I was greatly encouraged by the combination of your post today with today’s essay from Wade Taylor on the Elijah List. I believe that these two posts together form a “now” word from God. Wade Taylor wrote about Jesus’ promises with regard to asking/seeking/knocking. The end result is that a new door is opened, a portal into a new place. There’s a whole process involved, perhaps a lengthy one, in which we become aligned with the heart and mind of Jesus. What I want this year is to understand the balance between this activity and the state of rest. I reflected today about one of my cats, whose name (fittingly) is Rascal. Rascal pesters me actively until I let him sit on my lap. Once there, however, he can sleep for almost the entire day!

The activity of asking/seeking/knocking is related to what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God being taken by violence–which I interpret as extreme, passionate action. But as you wrote, if we try to open a door that God has closed, it won’t work! So our action has to be related to the doors that God is opening. We need to flow with the activity of the Spirit and, paradoxically, be able to rest.

Thanks so much, Don, and welcome back!

Thank you, Judy! And Happy New Year!