Deer New Year,

Uggh! Can you believe that I have not been able to articulate my New Year's Resolutions? I mean we are into the 5th day of 2010 and I've got nothin'! Those who can relate to a textbook Type A personality can sense my urgency and frustration. I have written out New Year's Resolutions since I was in grade school. For some, that does not surprise you.

Multiple times today January 5th, 2010, I thought...so, what are my goals this year?!? Wake up earlier? Eat better? Different and deep devotions? What?!

Then, I read my devotional. If anyone has talked to me about the Lord in the last year, they can bare witness to how Sarah Young's devotional, Jesus Calling, has radically blessed me in recent months. The short devotions are messages she received during prayer and journaling and are written "in first person, with 'I' designating God." Read this from January 5th:

"True dependence is not simply asking Me to bless what you have decided to do. It is coming to Me with an open mind, and heart, inviting Me to plant My desires within you."

Gosh! Why doesn't my mind work like that?! Not my will, but Thine! I have been praying that I would not only be more confident in claiming God's Word, promises, and character, but proclaim it, articulate it, and believe it. Here is a practical way for me to do just that. Invite Him to garden in my life! So in a matter of minutes, the question is no longer what are My goals, but what are His desires for me?! Friends, don't you want to learn what those are for yourself, too? Not mine. But yours?

So, I go from zero personal resolutions to 10 prayerful revelations for 2010. I'll share them with you for accountability and to satisfy my own personality disorder: :)
1. Accept that God has plans for me. Jeremiah 29:11
2. Believe that His plans are better than my own. John 10:10
3. Repent of my own selfish desires. Luke 5:32
4. "Invite Him to plant His desires within me." Psalm 1:3
5. Allow God to purify what He desires within me so that His desires can take root. Matthew 5:8
6. Pray for 5 spiritual senses to recognize His desires for me. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
7. Change my speech so that I can (pro)claim His plans with boldness. Matthew 15:18; Hebrews 4:16
8. Offer God my whole heart to help me make His desires my own. Matthew 22:37
9. Hide His Word in my heart. Psalm 119:11
10. Continually seek Him. Psalm 42:1

Some easier said than done. Currently on #4.

God, may this be a "deer" year for all of us.