The Most Important Lessons of 2022

Like most of the population, I am spending the day, reflecting on the previous year, and preparing my heart and mind for the next. I am amazed by how different our life is and the sheer number of things that have transpired in 12 months. As we ushered in 2022, I was so desperately sick that I did not anticipate living to see the end of January, and yet, here we are.

I survived!

Obviously.

Not only did I live, but we welcomed a new life! Our precious baby, Mercy. Sometimes I can hardly grasp the whirlwind that she emerged from. I often feel like I was swept up by a tornado, and after it ejected me, I woke up, in serene aftermath, holding a baby.

In many ways, 2022 was one of the hardest years of my life. I cannot begin to express the layers of difficulties & upheaval this year contained, and yet, I feel as if I am coming away from it, arms overflowing with riches.

James 1:2-4 reminds us to “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” I can say, because of this, with deepest conviction, that 2022 has been a profoundly important year in my life and it’s lessons are invaluable.

I’d like to share some of those lessons with my handful of readers. Perhaps you will find something in here, that will help you as you embark into the year ahead.

Lesson #1: God is Sovereign

Several years ago, our family stumbled quite unknowingly, into the influence of New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Word of Faith (WOF). The entire essence, is that we are to take upon ourselves, the eradication of every demon and sickness and undesirable circumstance we encounter in this world. We eventually, by the grace of God alone, realized that the doctrines that underly these practices are not only unbiblical, but insidious and demonic.

As we drove away from this, I remember wondering how on earth God would sort it all out. My mind was a tangle, trying to sift through what is false while retaining what is true.

And then it was as if the Lord hit the reset button.

We were not gone from there 1 week before I was in the ICU. Through that circumstance, the upheaval, and the trials that followed, I learned to put into practice, the fresh understanding that changing this situation did not rest upon my shoulders. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what could be salvaged when it came to ideas on healing, so it was never my focus. I simply clung to Him. In my sickest, most painful moments, I humbly petitioned Him for healing, but more than anything, I wanted Him, because He is so much more than a healer or a dispenser of positive things.

I trusted Him.

Good, bad, ugly. Come what may. My husband and children were in His hands, and whatever happened, I could rest in Him. I did not need to know what His plan was or even its purpose. It was enough to know that He is God, and that all things are governed by Him.

I am closing out this year with a calmness about all things that pertain to me, because I have a concrete, living understanding that He orchestrates all things.

Lesson #2 – God Answers Prayer Abundantly

Another repercussion of involvement with NAR/WOF, was a warped understanding of prayer and answers to it. Followers of these teachings are encouraged to seek for the slightest shred of “evidence” and then claim that a prayer has been answered. The unfortunate result of this, is that the evidences relied upon are generally superficial at best and they frequently become exaggerated. Eventually, the claims prove to be false. This elaborate trail of “answered prayers” boasted of turns out to be little more than “glorified fluff.”

This grave misrepresentation of God disturbed me. I did not desire to contribute to any person’s unhealthy obsession with miracles, so my prayers were never focused upon receiving grand impressive miracles for my own life. My prayers and the answers I received were of an entirely different sort.

When I speak of the abundant answers to prayer, I am not speaking of glitzy demonstrations of power that would energize a crowd.

I am speaking of the astonishing, liberal response of God when I cry out in my deepest weakness. I am talking about the way He answers prayers like, “God, I am a little child! I know nothing!” or “Lord, I lack wisdom!” “I lack understanding!” “I lack discernment!” He has met me with exceedingly more than what I dared to imagine He would. When I have acknowledged to Him, “God, I am entirely foolish and inadequate.” Or “God, I have these questions.” He has faithfully provided answers and clarity in abundance. When I reach up in absolute dependency upon Him, and would be content with a mere morsel of assistance, He has opened the storehouses of Heaven for me.

Which, naturally leads me to lesson #3.

Lesson #3 – God Can Do More in One Year than You Can Fathom

If I take a trip back, in my mind, to the very beginning of this year, I know that I would not have believed that God would accomplish all that He did, in the months that lay ahead. I believe, however, that God accomplished more in my life this year, than I have, with all of my best intentions, in the last 20.

So I want to leave you with this.  

If you are discouraged about where you are spiritually…

If you have felt like you’re spinning your wheels, exhausted, tangled in confusion. If you realize that you are on a dead-end street and it’s time to make a U-turn…

I know it looks daunting.

I stood there.

Your minds swirls with the “what ifs” and “what abouts”. The road ahead is uncharted and terrifying. You’re unsure of what to do and how to do it or where to turn. You have no idea how to navigate what you know must lie ahead…

I can promise you, that if you commit your ways to Him, He will guide your steps. (Pro.3:5-6)

It doesn’t happen overnight. There is a process. Lots of layers. But one thing I have learned with complete surety, is that if I draw near to Him, He will draw near to me. (James 4:8) It is in this drawing near to Him that legitimate progress is made.

How do you draw near to Him? Throw yourself into His Word. Above all things, consume His Word. Read it like your life depends on it, because it does. I have thought often this year, of Ephesians 5:26-27. The verses speak of how Christ loves the Church, and how He will sanctify and cleanse it with the Word. We acquire a lot of dirt and dinge in this world. Theological cobwebs. Calcified error. His Word however, becomes like good old soap and water, rinsing away impurities in our lives. The more you read it, the clearer things become. The more quickly you perceive error around you. The easier it is to break the strongholds in your mind of men’s opinions and deeply ingrained ideas. The better you know His Word, the more confidence you possess in what it says. It will not matter if the most important person alive says a thing. If you know it is false, according to God’s Word, you will not bat an eye to say so. There is absolutely no replacement for His Word. No amount of preaching, or books, or feel-good “presence”.

We know Him through His Word.

Remember that.

Bible. Bible. Bible.

Verify the context.

When you find yourself confused, or walking through difficult trials, read it more and more and more.

My point in all of that is this.

While you are enduring hard things, and you are clinging to His Word, He does unquantifiable work in your life.

So much so, that when you look back, you will hardly believe the distance between you and the thing you could not see your way out of.

In 2022, I clung to Him, and I buried myself in His Word, and when I looked out again, I saw He had carried me an immeasurable span.

I have seen the faithfulness of God.

I look forward to 2023.