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| photo credit: www.sja-catholicchurch.com |
This Christmas season has been very different for my family. In fact, if I am truthful, 2018 has been very hard, challenging, but also very blessed. I have a new appreciation, more understanding and a deeper intimacy for Jesus and the meaning of Christmas. The scripture that God continues to lead me to is Isaiah 40:3-5 of the Prophet Isaiah’s foretelling decree. The Lord also continues to speak to me revealing, “It is a time to prepare.” I continue to seek and ask for God’s wisdom, “Prepare for what God?” The scripture says,
“A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.””
For my family 2018 began with Kendall’s heart surgery to repair her congenital heart defect at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. This was one of the scariest times in my life where I had to depend on the Holy Spirit to show me how to surrender Kendall to God just as Abraham did his son Isaac when he walked him up the mountain to sacrifice his son being obedient to the Lord. In the midst of this unknown, Abraham trusted and believed in God knowing that God was going to provide an answered prayer that he in the moment could not conceive or comprehend. In my yielding to God, God brought a miraculous outcome of Kendall’s complete healing in the name of Jesus. 2018 has also been a year of many moves and transitions that were uncomfortable, unplanned, but again as I learned to yield to God’s plan, my family and I saw a promotion from the Lord. New doors and opportunities were given to us that were not possible in our own strength, but with God all things are possible.
Then just this week, my dad had surgery to remove part of his colon where unexpectedly colon cancer was found. He had no symptoms so this diagnosis came as a shock to us all. As we prayed for my dad, anointed him and again released and yielded my dad to God, God again performed a miracle with a successful surgery but more importantly the news that the cancer had not spread anywhere else in his body. To hear this news, I instantly knew that God heard the desires of our hearts and petitioned prayers. I wept for joy, I praised the Lord, I worshipped Him and I surrendered even more of my life to Him where I did not even think it was possible to give any more of myself than what I had already done.
Christmas for me this season has not been about gifts, a Christmas tree or decorations which is still not done nor do I intend to do it, but about PREPARING more of myself, my life, my way of being and seeking more of the Kingdom of God……Matter of fact, it has been about PREPARING for the coming of Jesus not just this Christmas season, but every day, every detail of my life so that it reflects to others that they may come to know or become in a more intimate relationship with Jesus. Friends, this is the only true gift that is worth living for and receiving, and His name is JESUS.
I pray you have and/or receive this gift. May you have a most joyful and blessed Christmas PREPARING! With love and in His grip, LaDawn Knicely
PS - I am taking a sabbitacle from social media to focus more on the Lord.
