2024 Journey with God

I’ve read an Instagram post that says, “If the January 2024 me met the December 2024 me, they wouldn’t stop talking about how good God is and how He works in lives who trust in Him.”

This suddenly made me look back when 2024 first started. I was a girl with full of doubts and fears for the uncertainty of the future. Fast forward to the last days of 2024, I am now a girl who found her future secured in the Lord. Those doubts and fears were replaced by Jesus with peace and joy.

This reminds me of Psalm 34:8, in Easy-to-Read Version which says, “Give the Lord a chance to show you how good He is. Great blessings belong to those who depend on Him.”

Notice how this version uses the statement, “Give the Lord a chance to show you how good He is.” Does this mean, when God is not good to us, that is because, we didn’t give Him the chance to be?

It’s possible. When we focus more on our circumstances, rather than on His character.

Put a pin on this, we’re going to go back to this in the last part of this blog.

The main reasons I felt doubts and fears when 2024 started because there are so many things that will be transformed in my life this season. Truth be told, I have been really in so many life transitions the past months.

From being a student.

To being a graduate.

To being a board exam passer.

To being a license holder.

To being a private practitioner.

To being a real estate instructor.

Who would have thought that all these transitions happened in just a span of 12 months?

And, would you also believe that I didn’t plan all these to be happened in just a year? I was just following the tracks that God is leading me, trusting the path He has for me. I don’t know what my future holds, but I do know Who holds the future, and instead of depending on my future, I depended on the One Who knows my future.

2024 feels challenging to me in a way that I need to make a life-changing decision for myself and I don’t know whether to go for it or not. My graduation is fast approaching, so that means, I’ll be needing to take the licensure examination and take a job. I will enter the real world, done was my College life. I am having an anxiety on whether to take the licensure examination or not, I remember the nights where I spend it by crying and praying, asking God for wisdom about it…

And I felt His silence.

I wasn’t sure whether to take the exam or not. I am financially incapable, I don’t want to fail, I don’t want to rush taking the exam, but I also don’t want to delay taking it. I don’t know where to go. I felt like my life has no direction. I am asking for God’s go signal, but I heard none. 

Still… I trusted in Him.

Deciding is difficult, and at that moment, trusting in God feels like the easiest thing to do, so that’s what I did the most. This life is not mine to decide, but His.

During those many nights that I begged and cried to God, little did I know that His silence doesn’t mean His absence. Oftentimes, His silence means He heard us, and He is working.

My prayer was simple, “God, I don’t want to go in this path without You in it. If I should not take the exam, remove this thought from me, yet not my will but Yours be done. If we should take the exam, God, bless the path we are about to take. I am financially incapable, but I am believing that You are able to provide for me. You are the God of possibility and nothing is impossible for you. I don’t want to fail the exam, God, so if I am going to fail this year, don’t let me take it. But I trust You, Lord. Even if I fail, I know You still stand true to Your promise. That, Your plans for me are good, even if I pass or not.”

This honest and vulnerable prayer has been heard by the Most High. All throughout my journey in taking the licensure examination, He provided financially. He let me take the exam, gave me blessing and favor over it and gave me victory. Above all, He gave me peace and joy that kicked my anxiety. He gave me clarity and wisdom.

But, do you know the important part of it all? God is with me as I took that path. It was the first part of my prayer. In the long run, it’s not about passing the exam that made me joyful, but God’s presence, guidance, and leading in my life. That I wouldn’t be able to achieve everything I have now, if it’s not for His presence.

I remember my favorite lyrics from a song from my favorite artist “Phil Wickham.” He has a song entitled “Wait,” and the chorus goes on like this, “The longer I wait, the more You can do, and the deeper I fall in love with You.”

This song lyrics really spoke to me during my waiting season. In our waiting seasons, God is working. He already prepared the way, He is only preparing us. And while we wait, instead of seeing it as a burden, we rather must see it as an opportunity for God’s power to work within us and an opportunity for us to strengthen our personal relationship with Him.

I shared something to our church during our discipleship and it was really powerful. I told them that, before God gives us the present we desire, He wanted us to delight in His presence first. 

Above all the things I received this year, God’s presence is the best. His presence gave me peace, calm, and joy in the moments that I don’t understand anything. In the middle of chaos around my surroundings, God’s presence made me still. It’s comforting to know that whatever I face in this life and whatever I lose, I can always have God’s presence, something that can never be taken away from me. That’s the privilege of being a child of God.

During the first moments of 2024, where I don’t know how to start and where to begin, suddenly God revealed this verse to me that became my 2024 verse. It’s from Matthew 6:33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.”

God holds the answers to our questions. He holds the direction to our lives. If we seek Him first and His Kingdom, these answers, directions, and wisdom we need will be given unto us, even if we don’t ask for it. Everything in our lives will fall to its right places naturally.

There is this book that I read from Ronieth Dayao entitled, “Begin Again.” There was this phrase that says, “Begin again, but this time, with God.”

In that moment, I realized that maybe I feel confused about my life-decsions, because I am not including God in it. That I rather wanted to figure it out myself than allow God to interfere in my decisions. But when I surrendered my plans to God and allowed Him to take over, everything suddenly started going on its right direction. 

Remember that story in the Bible where Jesus walked on water while the disciples were on the boat and it was raining hard, the waves are crashing the boat. Then, Peter saw Jesus walking on the water. Jesus invited Peter to walk with Him on the water. At first, Peter was able to walk in the water, but after a couple of minutes, He got afraid by the waves of the seas and the rain that He sank in the water. And Jesus said, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” But Jesus still rescued Peter from drowning and pulled him up. (Matthew 14:22-30)

This story is the very vision of my 2024. There were many moments that I became like Peter. Just like Peter, I was invited by Jesus to walk with Him in the water and I took His hand. But also just like Peter who sunk in the water because he got distracted by his surroundings, I sunk because I was distracted focusing on my anxiety, doubts, fears, taking the exam, graduation, taking a new job, and not fixing my eyes on Jesus. 

The very powerful moment in the story is even in the middle of doubts, Jesus pulled Peter from drowning and rescued him. Jesus did that to me too, and He can to you too. Even if we doubt and we fail, Jesus is always there to rescue us. When Jesus invites us to step in the water and take His hand, we got to trust that He is not going to abandon us in the middle of the storm. We don’t have to worry about sinking, Jesus will pull us up. 

God is asking us to focus on Him, not on our circumstances. To put our trust in Him, not on our situations.

On January 2024, I started a Bible plan, it’s called, “Bible Recap” by Tara-Leigh Cobble. You are going to go through the whole Bible chronologically for the whole 365 days. There is this statement Tara-Leigh repeatedly states, “He is where the joy is.”

This simple statement brought so much impact. This has taught me not to put my joy in my circumstances, but always on God. Even if I am in the situation that I didn’t want to be in, I can still have joy because I have Jesus in my heart. I know I am going to be okay. I can have peace, even in the middle of chaos. 

I remember sticking a note to my cork board when 2024 began. My January me wrote, “Whatever awaits me in 2024, I know God’s goodness will continue to run after me.”

This simple biblical declaration easily brought peace and calm to my nerves. Truly, His goodness and mercy followed me all the days of my life.

When we’re being attacked by anxiety, declaring God’s goodness is the antidote. The enemy plants anxiety in our hearts and minds to distract us from what God has planned for us. The enemy doesn’t want us to taste the goodness of God, but if we allow ourselves to be filled by God’s presence by His Spirit, we can give God the chance to show how good He is.

If I can go back in time and meet my January 2024 me, I would tell her this:

“Hey, whatever it is you are worrying about, it is going to be okay. God’s goodness sustained you. Keep trusting Him. Keep fighting, because you are not alone in this battle. Remember all the things you are praying for? Spoiler alert, God answered all those things. You graduated, you passed the board, you got a new job, and the important of it all, you have Him still, You always will. And now, all the hardships you went through to achieve those things have turned into testimonies to share God’s goodness to people. I am so proud of you, and so is God. Keep doing things for His glory and for His Kingdom.”

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Prayer: God, thank You for everything You’ve done for me in 2024. Thank You for all the visible and invisible blessings. I know that in whatever circumstances, You are there. You never left me nor forsake me. We are about to enter another year, God. Help me to trust You more on 2025. Help me build a relationship with You. I want to draw closer to You, not because of my desires, but because You are my desire. Thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit to be with us. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Worship song to listen to: Been So Good by Bethany Music and BJ Putnam