More in 2016

When my best friend first told me about the One Little Word campaign a few years ago, I didn't really want to join the bandwagon. I'm not a bandwagon type person. And choosing a word for the whole year didn't make much sense to me. I didn't get it. Since I couldn't find one verse in the Bible telling me I had to choose one little word for the year, I didn't worry too much about it. But then that still small voice whispered one little word to me and so, for that year, I decided to join in the fun.

Each year it was the same. I would decide that I wasn't going to choose a new word for the year but then the Holy Spirit would give one to me. It would be so fitting that I couldn't stop thinking about it. It would also be so surprising that I knew I didn't think it up on my own.

And so, once again this year, I was adamant that I was not going to choose one little word unless I was completely certain that it didn't come from me.

One of the advantages to doing a lot of traveling during the holidays, and having a husband who prefers the driver's seat to the passenger's seat, is that I get a lot of reading done. On January 1st I started reading Rescuing Ruby by Linny Lee Saunders. On January 2nd I finished it. In those 48 hours, as I read example after example of God's goodness and the miraculous in rescuing one of His precious treasures, a word kept popping into my head. It came so often that I couldn't push it away any longer. It was clear that my word for 2016 is to be more.

Kind of funny since my word for 2015 was less. God does have a sense of humor. And a divine plan for removing all that does not belong in me and filling it with more of Him.

Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I do not believe more means more children (although I would certainly not be opposed to the idea). It does not mean more in finances and it definitely does not mean more stuff.

Instead, I am looking forward to a year of so much more -

more of Him
more prayer
more faith
more trust
more need for faith and trust
more dependence on Christ for everything
more hunger and thirst for that which truly satisfies
more intimacy with God
more intimacy with others (yikes!)
more service
more giving
more sacrifice
more growth
more like Him
more compassion
more kindness
more love
more joy
more grace
more fruit
more gifts of the Spirit
more time with my Lord
more forgetting what is behind
more pressing on
more of the miraculous
more seeing as Jesus sees
more power
more victory