Happy New Year! Happy 24! We are grateful to have been one of the ones God chose to see it come to pass. Although I am posting this on the first day of the new year, I wrote it in the final hours of 2023, in particular to leave whatever that is not to be carried over. I am grateful to say that it was nothing but the Lord who carried me and my family, but in particular, during what was the most challenging year I believe I have ever encountered. There were so many days where I truly valued and understood the meaning that undergirds, “one moment at a time.” For there are some situations and encounters by which nothing in your arsenal seems to work for what you are facing, and it is completely the grace of God coupled with trusting His timing for a thing that ushers us into our next. So, with the final hours of 2023 and if the Lord allows, I want to pause and simply say, “Thank you Lord,” for not allowing the enemy to have his way.

Luke 22: 31-32 reads, “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Let me just state that for someone that has a severe gluten allergy, this scripture tells me that the enemy would annihilate me if God would allow him to have his way and everything attached to me…but God! For me gluten acts in the form of an autoimmune disease, allowing my body to attack itself. And to be honest, sometimes self sabotage with my words, or lack of faith or trust in God attempted to thwart the temple of God that I live, move and have my being in. Thank God for Jesus and for His intercession daily on our behalf. For no matter what was presented, in family, on job, health, mental and emotional battle royale, either for me or you, the Lord proved Himself to be a healer, deliverer, comforter, sustainer, miracle working God! So, I have no need to list everything He did, nor the one thing that presented in full blown trauma from January thru December – just know that you can’t make me doubt Him because I have experienced His faithfulness, kindness, grace, peace and abundance all in the same breath. And the amazing thing is that He’s not yet done. So return to the radical, outlandish, downright absurd thinking as man would have you to believe and launch out instead in alignment for what God has already prayed for you; and don’t forget, when you are blessed and assured, strengthen those around you. Can you imagine Jesus praying for you and what you encounter? Just picture it. As if sending Jesus wasn’t enough, we are the benefactors of Jesus’ petitions!!!!! Let that sink in. So even though it is satan’s desire to sift us as wheat, gluten is no match for the God we serve! May we be in community with one another like never before and may we see everything that God has whispered come to pass. Happy New Year! Let’s get it! Be Blessed!