See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making away in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19

As I write, it is October 28th. Gearing up for Halloween weekend here – church fall festival, costumes and candy. But since we plan this blog months ahead, I am catapulted into 2017.

What will the year hold for each of us? Will it be “The Best Year Ever!”? “The One That Nearly Did Me In”? Or just another year? There will be definite scheduled things you see coming now: You may graduate. Celebrate your child’s first birthday. Retire. Go on the mission field. Move to a new city. Get married….  And then there will be the unexpected things: Will you fall in love? Get transferred? Break up with the boyfriend? Bury a parent? Get your dream job? Experience serious illness? None of us know.

Life is a wild ride! Ups and downs, turbulence and smooth sailing. So are you up for the adventure? Or are you clinging to the status quo with white knuckles just hoping nothing very bad comes your way? Is there a way we can be prepared for these unexpected troubles that come our way? You know there is! I wouldn’t ask a question like that unless I was about to give you my wise answer! 😉

The way to be prepared for whatever comes our way, is to know and follow closely The Way, Jesus Christ.

Some of our goals here at Priceless blog that you can read on our “About” page are:

We hope to INSPIRE women to desire a deeper relationship with their Father God, to grow in the grace and knowledge of their Savior Jesus Christ, and to live a Spirit-filled life.

We commit to CHALLENGE women to study the Word of God, pray in faith, walk obediently as Christ-followers, and love and serve others around them just as Christ did.

We long to ENCOURAGE women as they daily experience the good times and even the mundane, but also the difficult times: the obstacles, the tragic, or the unknowns in life.

Hopefully, all our articles help women come to a deeper realtionship with the Lord. But in an effort to be intentional, instructional, and organized in this help, and in order to help you face the coming year ahead “clothed in strength and dignity,” we are trying something new over the next couple of months. Next Monday we will begin a discipleship series called Back to the Basics. It will consist of a series of articles that come out every other Monday on the foundational disciplines of walking with the Lord. It is for every age and every stage of life. We’ll cover topics like having a quiet time, reading the Bible, prayer and journaling, just to name a few. These topics are great for new believers and young Christians, but will also hopefully inspire the veteran Christian women. Also, we ask that you mature women would chime in on the replies and share tips and wisdom you have learned in your walk with Christ.

Following some spiritual disciplines in our lives will do several beneficial things for us on the road of life this year. First, our relationship with Christ will grow and flourish in ways that bless us deeply whatever our circumstances. As we come to know and love Him more through Bible study and prayer, we come to trust Him more, to understand His ways more, and to fear the future less. As our faith grows, we trust that we have a redeemer, a refuge, a defender, a guide, a savior, a healer, and a lover of our soul that carries us through every situation we encounter in life.

Second, we will develop habits that are good for our spiritual life. Having that organized quiet time, time in the word, prayer, etc. will carry us through the rough waters. We won’t wake up the morning after a crisis freaking out. We will wake up and go to our chair where we meet with God each day and spend time with Him, because that is our routine. And our hearts will receive peace and direction and wisdom for the issues of the day. That’s not to say that everything will be rosy; it’s to say that the God of all Hope has your back in every situation.

Third, we will change. We will become new. At salvation we are made a new creature. But the change does not end there. God is in the business of remaking us continually. All those self-help books get us nowhere in the long run. But a close and dynamic relationship with Christ rubs off those rough edges, sweeps out the hidden dirt, hammers out the dings, and shines up our tarnished places almost without us realizing it. His transforming work in our heart through the washing of His Word will cause us to become someone different, better.

Let me give you a guarantee. Walk faithfully following Christ and sticking with the spiritual disciplines presented to you through this series, and you will look back in 5 years (probably in only 1 year!) and say, “Wow! I can’t believe that was me back then. Look how He has changed me.” To re-word a Broadway lyric from Wicked, “I can say that I’ve been changed for the better. Because I knew Him, I have been changed for good!”

So on our journey this year, let’s seek Him daily. Let’s grow! Let’s live abundantly, faithfully! Let us not fear the future, but walk faithfully.

We ask that mature women would chime in on the replies and share tips and wisdom you have learned in your walk with Christ.