Writing Prompt
My Word for 2024 is Heaven
What is Your Word for the New Year?
A few years ago, I picked a word for the year. My choice for 2023 was simplify. My word for 2024 is heaven. That might sound like an odd choice for something to focus on for the year, but there is a reason for it. Let me explain.
Focusing on simplification in my life last year opened my eyes to a new perspective. I was on a journey to simplify my life: body, soul, and spirit. I’ve been on a journey to improve my health physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Throughout that simplification process, God spoke to my heart.
I started to see life in a new way. I began to see that God wanted my sole focus.
In September, my husband and I started attending two small groups. One is called Our Jewish Roots. The other is a family life group. Both have been so helpful in helping us feel connected again to other people — and to God. In the first group, we are studying the book of Revelation. We are learning a lot from that group. We also partake in a shortened version of Shabbat each Friday. That is the Jewish Day of Rest.
“Shabbat happens each week from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. During Shabbat, Jewish people remember the story of creation from the Torah where God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day.”
Learning from our group leader has been great. I feel like I’ve gone back to school each Friday. We’ve also been learning a lot in our Saturday night group. We’ve enjoyed the fellowship. That group is currently studying the book of Malachi.
My Word for 2024 is Heaven
Since we’ve been doing the study of Revelation, my focus has been on Heaven and what it’s going to be like. I never read through the entire book of Revelation before. I guess I didn’t really want to think about it because it seemed too complicated for me to understand.
We had the opportunity to attend a small group last year where they were studying the book of Revelation, but we didn’t go to that. I know I wasn’t ready to hear it.
But God is good, and His timing is always perfect.
I have been learning so much from the group studying Revelation. I take notes each class. Our leader is very knowledgeable. They started studying this book of the Bible about six months before we joined the class. We asked our leader for notes up to that point and my husband and I are slowly reviewing those as we can so we can catch up on what we missed.
We went to a Christmas concert at church last week and missed our Saturday night Bible study. I wanted to catch up on the lesson (from Malachi) that we missed. I downloaded the Right Now Media app to our TV and to my phone. I watched the lesson that we missed.
Then the God moment happened.
I found a study on Revelation from Verse By Verse International Ministries. I started listening to those lessons. They’re only about 20 minutes long. I listened over the weekend to a few while I was washing dishes and cleaning. I told my husband about this ministry, and he checked them out online. He found out that they have longer video versions of the lessons that I started on Right Now Media.
I’m going to continue listening to the lessons on Right Now Media. Then I’ll listen to the more comprehensive ones on the Verse By Verse International Ministries app. Going through these lessons has helped me understand the book of Revelation better.
My word for 2024 is heaven because of the following reasons:
· It reminds me to seek God’s kingdom daily.
· It helps me to choose compassion.
· It helps me to choose God over self.
· It helps me to spend time with Him each day.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33, NKJV)
What is your word for 2024?
If you write about your word for 2024, please tag me. I’d love to read what you write about it.
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