2018 Top Ten Life Lessons

1. Spring Cleaning and a Change in Environment affects the soul! – 2018 has been a spring cleaning type of year for me. I tidied and reorganized my notes on having your own spiritual retreat and published an ebook “DIY Spiritual Retreat“. I did the same on an study that I had gone through with ladies from church and published the book ” Delighting in the Names of God: 8 Weeks to a Deeper Prayer Life” I reorganised my wardrobe, email list subscribers, created a new website, our international student of over 3 years left us, took ugly reddish tiles of our kitchen wall and painted and replaced terrible brightly coloured ’80s curtains from our lounge! I discovered as each change in my physical environment happened there was a shift in my spirit. The correlation was amazing. At the beginning of the year I was without a vision and I felt disordered. I believe that God led us to tidy up our physical environment and in return we have gained soul clarity.
2. Everything that’s Good Starts with an Awareness of God Living Within – selah
   
3. True Freedom Living = Receiving God’s Love – According to 1 John 4:18, perfect love drives out fear. There is zero freedom if fear is present. So the answer to all that is – practice receiving God’s love. Two books that have been particularly helpful – “Fearless” by Max Lucado and“God Loves You, He always has – He always will” by David Jeremiah
   
4. My Life Always Holds Meaning Because God Lives In Me – I realised this year that I tend to seek meaning in whatever I am doing – do you? If the activity or conversations has meaning then I am satisfied, fulfilled and feeling like I am living in freedom. I want my life to answer the Big Why. Freedom to me means having the ability and resources to live each moment with meaning and significance knowing that every activity has a purpose and brings me closer to the Big Why of life. But I found myself striving to find this meaning. Then God revealed the truth – Deep down our lives always have meaning because of the reality of God living inside. Everything has significance because God is in me. Even my accounting job. Even grocery shopping. Even preparing the evening meal for the family.
   
5. Question from God: Are you ready and open to say ‘yes’ to me ALL the time? even when you don’t know how it will work out? – ponder that. How would you answer God? How is your life answering that question?
   
6. The Loaves Story is My Life Story – Feeding the 5,000 retold in John 6 speaks volumes into my life in 2018. Don’t believe what you can see. Believe what you don’t see. The disciples saw a lack of resources – just 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed over 5,000 people. Jesus saw an opportunity for spiritual multiplication. Give the little that you have to God and He does the rest. Amen.
   
7. Fight for the Strong Connection with God – It is a battlefield in the world and God has impressed on my heart how important it is to fight to keep abiding with Christ. Most of the time this is a fight against your own flesh and what it wants to do. Comfort being the number one item on its agenda. In our modern age there are so many devices and media that are fighting for our attention and we have to daily fight their drawing away so that we can be drawn into intimacy with God. Fight for that daily time. Fight for keeping the awareness of Spirit promptings.
   
8. Be Captivated by God’s Power & Glory NOT your Short Comings – God says ” I have so much in store for you but you can’t enter it all when you are bound up in lying thoughts. Stop being captivated by your own shortcomings instead be captivated by my power and glory. Those lying thoughts and fears are tiny and insignificant. Stop being distracted by lies. Instead of being captivated by scurrying lying thoughts, be captivated by my love for you. Be captivated by my power to do the impossible.” Amen. Take an inventory of lying thoughts and paralyzing fears. Bring the list to God. Surrender. Write in BIG letters – GOD HAS GOT THIS!
   
9. Change Needs to Start on the Inside – I have been pondering and writing about Inside Out Living this year. I think there is a book in this concept which, God willing, I will look at writing in 2019. (since you are on my email list you will be the first to know all the details!) To change anything, your health, finances, environment, relationships – it all starts with the inside. What you are thinking, feeling and deciding. The Bible says that as a woman thinks in her heart – so is she. (Proverbs 23:7). What we decide to focus our attention and activity doing, how we respond to people and events around us, what thoughts we entertain – all takes place in our souls and can be directed with the help of the indwelling Spirit.
   
10. Books that Inspired in 2018 – here are some books that inspired me to live this inside out life.
    • Any books by Christine Caine. Inspiring me to answer God’s call on my life. I read “Unstoppable” this year – couldn’t put it down, I had to read the whole thing in one sitting!
    • “The Masterpiece” by Francine Rivers. This is a fiction book which opened my eyes to God’s amazing power to redeem lonely messed up lives and create something beautiful. Wonderful story.
    • “My Seventh Monsoon: A Himalayan Journey of Faith and Mission” by Naomi Reed. Memoir of a missionary living through the monsoon seasons in Nepal. She has an awesome ability to reveal layers of truth through seasons in our lives of God working. She tells her story warts and all which is what I like the most. Her other books are also worth a read.
    • “Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God Not Food” by Lysa Terkeurst. The subtitle says it all. An honest look at why we crave food more than God. My copy is filled with highlighting and tags!
    • “If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God’s What If Possibilities” by Mark Batterson. I am currently reading this and can’t put it down. It’s full of ‘aha moments’ for me. Mark does an amazing job of expounding on Romans 8 – the famous chapter that ends with “if God be for us, who can be against us.” Each chapter is a verse from Romans 8 but he weaves the theme of “If Only” and “What if” throughout. You are left pondering after every chapter – What if I could, with God ……

Well, that is the end of my Top Ten Life Lessons for 2018 – which one resonate with you? I would love to hear from you – please comment below and share what God taught you this year.

Keeping leaning into God and finish 2018 well

Rachel Larkin