40 Days - Day 23

Being the last day of this extraordinary year, I find myself thinking back upon all the memorable times, things I did wrong and events that I would love to relive. For me, this was a hard journey full of intimidating trials, exhausting climbs and unfortunate set-backs. However, I still feel that I have been blessed. My relationship with God has grown more than I had expected, though it was harder than I had anticipated by far. And, while I had originally thought that I would be able to look back and say, “Wow, I’ve finally made it! This is it!” I have only reached what I thought to be the top, finding it was a mere cliff. Still the view is amazing, and a view that many people go their entire lives without seeing has been opened to me.

A few of you know this, but at an AMAZING event this past summer (The Call 07.07.07), I experienced God like never before! The encounter was so overpowering, and I decided to do something that I’d wished to happen every year. Not really knowing what I was getting myself into I prayed for hours, begging him to “break me of myself.” I reached a place in time that I felt closer to God than ever before (right as school was starting), and then at the height of it all, I began to be painstakingly broken. For a while I didn’t understand what was happening, and while I still pressed into God, I sought the counsel of my “godmother” Vicki who is a marvelous woman of Christ. She began to help me out of the spiritual state of oppression and encouraged me to continue pressing into God. After many months of fighting for truth with myself I have reached a place of achievement and trials. The process has been long and hard, but I have learned the importance of enjoying life and living it through the love of God.

I know that many of you are looking back at the previous year’s happenings and finding the many things that stick out to you as “good” or “bad,” and a few of you are even wishing for more time, finding it now gone. I too find myself wishing for things to have worked out better, but I know that no matter what I say or think about it, the past is history. It is in this understanding and experience that I encourage you to join me in beginning the New Year with this verse to head us off and really press to have this Scripture reverberate through us as a body of Christ day to day.

“So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect” Romans 12:1-2 NCV.



Abba Father,



We praise Your abundant love, adore Your mighty power, and seek Your mercy in our lives. We come to You with the most humble hearts - thanking You for the blessings we have been given this year. It’s been an amazing journey, and we cry out for more. God, You are all we need. We desire only to seek You in everything we do. Our hearts and souls beg for You to enter every crease and fold of our hearts. God, I have felt You in waves of utter awe, and I pray in Jesus’ name that You give each and every one of us a new burning love for You. We ask that You forgive the sins we committed this year knowing that You will forget them and remove guilt other than that we choose to bring up ourselves. You are an awesome God, and we love You! Let our hearts be pure before You and our minds clear. Father we thank You for loving us before we even thought, for being so amazingly forgiving. We ask that You lead us into this Winter Retreat with an overpowering desire to have nothing but You in it. I pray that we keep our minds on Your glory through it and our hearts enflamed with Your love.



In Christ, Love Always Endures,

Marisa Anne