A Quick Look Back And A Biblical Look Ahead
~ Today’s Scripture art and biblical look ahead were designed to help you write God’s Word on your heart and look with new eyes at a familiar Bible verse in Jeremiah 29! ~
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Welcome to my first anniversary party! I have now been blogging for a solid year. Woot!
Blogiversary? (I just looked it up – that’s a real word.)
I wish we could celebrate together with a cupcake – or a fruit basket if you made a healthy new year’s resolution – so I can give you a proper THANK YOU for following along. You are the best! Truly.
Let’s take a quick look back, shall we?
Last year’s new year’s resolution (to blog every Thursday) … check!
Well, almost. I did take off last week to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. But that’s all. I sent you a free hand-lettered printable every Thursday except one, and I lettered even more than that on instagram. And don’t even get me started on all the practice calligraphy sheets I went through!
And it was all good. All worship. I hope it was for you too.
So this week I took a look back over the year in my analytics, and it turns out that your favorite posts and my favorite posts were totally different. Hmmm. Not sure what to think about that, but take a look …
Your Favorites (top five most visited posts for 2017)
1. A-Z List of Bible Study Acronyms
2. 8 Biblical Time Management Tips
3. Review – Seamless Bible Study
4. Book Review – The Undoing of St. Silvanus
My Favorites (and why)
1. Quick – Find God’s Will Before Your Deadline – because I love God’s sense of humor.
2. Am I Going To Heaven When I Die? – because it was the hardest one I (actually, mostly God) wrote!
3. What if I Struggle With Some of the Fruits of the Spirit? – because I do – and He loves to answer questions like these.
4. Don’t Do Anything – because of the goosebumps.
5. Seek God First – because it was life changing.
It’s always good to look back and remember what God has taught us.
Deuteronomy 8:2: And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
Are you wondering what’s in store for 2018?
Any changes? Any new plans or resolutions?
Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
I will continue to email you a new hand-lettered Bible verse every Thursday, Lord willing. It is my joy to do so. BUT, I will be giving myself a little more grace this year. When life gets crazy (notice I didn’t say if), I may allow myself to skip a blog post if needed for sanity purposes. 
(Edited to add: This changed to once a month in 2022.)
All that to say, you will continue to hear from me at least once a month as long as you are a subscriber. Deal?
We will also continue to dig into Scripture together.
For example, we all love the Jeremiah verse above. But get a load of the verses around it.
Jeremiah 29:10-13: “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Did you catch that seventy years part? Hello. I’m thinking we might need to think a little more long-term when we quote this favorite verse.
And I looked up the translation of the word welfare. The original word meant: completeness, soundness, welfare, peace.
When we think in terms of completeness, soundness and peace for our future, that brings into light the stuff in the next two verses – calling upon Him, praying to Him, seeking Him with all my heart. Yep, those things will bring completeness, soundness, welfare and peace.
So, His future plans for us (those plans for welfare to give us a future and a hope) are … did you catch it? … to seek Him.
How’s that for a new year’s resolution?
And I have an idea to help us do just that.
What if we wrote down a verse every day? Not in calligraphy – just our plain old handwriting. I’ve done this in the past, but missed doing it the last couple of years. And I’m thinking it would be much more fun with a few friends.
So here’s what I have in mind. I’m not going to give you a verse list. You will find verses to write from whatever Bible study you happen to be doing. Maybe you’re reading through a certain book of the Bible or doing a workbook study with a small group. You may be reading a daily devotional or you may be reading the Bible chronologically on your Bible app. Whatever study you are doing will work.
If you need a Bible study suggestion, see my BOOK REVIEWS.
It’s simple really. Grab a piece of paper – or my new Verse Journal or my pretty Christian Printable Planner Sheet Set below and write one verse each day.
Need accountability? 
Then join me in our private Small Group where I will be posting a picture each week of the seven verses I wrote. Then YOU can post your seven and we’ll encourage each other! We’ll just share a week at a time – that way if you miss a week for whatever reason, you can pick it up again the next week.
This is gonna be fun!
And more importantly, it will keep us in His Word.
Well, we’ve come to the end of this party. Did you enjoy your cupcake? Oh – I forgot – it was fruit for you. Well, at the end of next year we will have to take this party up a notch or two to celebrate all the verses we wrote! Sound good? Good!
Now, one last thing. If you have any ideas or suggestions for this little corner of the internet, I would love to hear from you! Fire away.
Happy New Year!
*My prayer for you is … that this blog will inspire you to open your Bible every single day to seek God’s face and write His Word on your heart – because HE’S the key to lasting heart change!
Have a comment? I would love to hear it on my instagram or facebook page!
I link up with these blogger friends: Arabah Joy at Grace & Truth, Deb at Faith ‘n Friends, Kelly at Purposeful Faith, Jennifer at Tell His Story, Holley at Coffee For Your Heart.
You might also enjoy these related posts …
Read > Why You Have to Keep Romans 8:28 In Context
Check Out > My Personal Bible Study Method
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