What's your Key Verse for 2008

Maybe its just my church, but we've always been encouraged to pick a key verse to define our Spiritual ambition or expectations for the next year. Last year my verse picked me, as I was browsing through the bible I was looking for a verse about boldness and ended up stopping on Ephesians 4:1-3. I read the part about being completely humble and gentle and bearing with one another in love and I said to myself, 'this isn't the verse for me.' And as I flipped over to the next page I was struck by the Spirit and realized that God had led me to that verse because He wanted me to live it out in 2007.

Now I can't say that I lived it out, but I'm definitely grateful for that verse being at the forefront of my mind for the entire year, and it's challenged me a lot in how I interact with others and how I consider myself.

This year God directed me to a couple of verses while I was considering all of the places that I failed during the previous year. Every year our church has a New Years Eve service, when we can consider the year that has passed and the year that is to come. I couldn't help but consider all of the places that I'd failed in the previous year, which brought me to tears. I'd been a horrible steward. Then God directed my heart to this verse, at first I could only remember, 'forgetting what is behind.' So I flipped open to the concordance and read the verse in it's context and it was exactly appropriate for what I had been praying and repenting about.

[b]Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. –Philippians 3:12-14[/b]

The past is in the past and it is all under the blood of Jesus, now reaching forth towards what is before, I press on towards the will of God in my life.

I've got a lot to pray about and work towards as I am currently applying to grad schools and considering my future, this verse seems to have come to me at the perfect time. I also couldn't get Matthew 6:33 out of my head either, with regards to finding a spouse. I'm blessed to have both verses in my heart right now.

Has anyone else been led to pick a key verse for the year, or has the Spirit picked one for you?

mine is in my signature...

I want to prepare my heart to seek God's Word and to obey it...but probably not to teach in Israel :)

hi, micah 6:8 jimp he has shown thee o man what is good and what the Lord requires of thee;to do justly, love mercy,and walk humbly with thy God.

Jimp, that's a great verse, this year that was the key verse for Seattle Missions Fest -so its kind of burned in my memory. Oh and there's a great older song with that verse as the lyrics.

1Ti 6:11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness

Any resolutions to go along with your verses?

I only have two

1 spend some more time in prayer, and in the word

2 overcome anger

2 overcome anger

"Let me illustrate with another story. I once arrived in America in the home of a saved couple who requested me to pray for them. I inquired the cause of their trouble. 'Oh, Mr. Nee, we have been in a bad way lately', they confessed. 'We are so easily irritated by the children, and during the past few weeks we have both lost our tempers several times a day. We are really dishonoring the Lord. Will you ask Him to give us patience?' 'That is the one thing I cannot do', I said. 'What do you mean?' they asked. 'I mean that one thing is certain', I answered, 'and that is that God is not going to answer your prayer.' At that they said in amazement, 'Do you mean to tell us we have gone so far that God is not willing to hear us when we ask Him to make us patient?' 'No, I do not mean quite that, but I would like to ask you if you have ever prayed in this respect. You have. But did God answer? No! Do you know why? Because you have no need of patience.' Then the eyes of the wife blazed up. She said, 'What do you mean? We do not need patience, and yet we get irritated the whole day long! What do you mean?' 'It is not patience you have need of', I answered, 'it is Christ.'

God will not give me humility or patience or holiness or love as separate gifts of His grace. He is not a retailer dispensing grace to us in doses, measuring out some patience to the impatient, some love to the unloving, some meekness to the proud, in quantities that we take and work on as a kind of capital. He has given only one gift to meet all our need-His Son Christ Jesus, and as I look to Him to live out His life in me, He will be humble and patient and loving and everything else I need - in my stead. Remember the word in the first Epistle of John: "God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life" (1 John 5:11,12). The life of God is not given us as a separate item; the life of God is given us in the Son. It is "eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). Our relationship to the Son is our relationship to the life.

It is a blessed thing to discover the difference between Christian graces and Christ: to know the difference between meekness and Christ, between patience and Christ, between love and Christ. Remember again what is said in 1 Corinthians 1:30: "Christ Jesus... was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." The common conception of sanctification is that every item of the life should be holy; but that is not holiness, it is the fruit of holiness. Holiness is Christ. It is the Lord Jesus being made over to us to be that. So you can put in anything there: love, humility, power, self-control. Today there is a call for patience: He is our patience! Tomorrow the call may be for purity: He is our purity! He is the answer to every need. That is why Paul speaks of "the fruit of the Spirit" as one (Gal. 5:22) and not of 'fruits' as separate items. God has given us His Holy Spirit, and when love is needed the fruit of the Spirit is love; when joy is needed the fruit of the Spirit is joy. It is always true. It does not matter what your personal deficiency, or whether it is a hundred and one different things, God has one sufficient answer-His Son Jesus Christ, and He is the answer to every human need." - WATCHMAN NEE.

sorry ian, i don't have any verse that sticks out yet for this year.. but i will post when i do.

phil

James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. [b]For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.[/b]

This is truly an excellent post. We tend to look at the GIFTS, rather than the GIVER; the HEALING rather than the HEALER. It is Christ in me that is my hope (expected end) of glory: Not how well "I do" at portraying Him, but how much of me DIES and exchanges my life for His. I have two verses that have been coming back to me time and again as I contemplate the new year.

Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

2Corinthians 2:14: "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place."

Not only does God ALWAYS cause us to triumph, but then we get to go tell others and bear witness to Him! How awesome is that?!

Luke 1:8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course,9 According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.

Oh, how I love this. I want to be the one who burns the pure incense to ignite prayer FOR THE PEOPLE WITHOUT TEMPLE (without the presence)

I love how it mentions that Zacharias EXECUTED the simple task, which was yet so honorable in the sight of the Lord, of burning the incense.....he was faithful and disicipline even in this simple task of worship...

[u][b]Psa 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. [/b][/u]

This verse jumped out at me several days ago and has been on my mind ever since. By the Grace of God I am going to grab hold of this verse with both hands...and not let go! I desire nothing more than to be able to look at this verse as a testimony in the future. I believe that if I could honestly say that this verse was 100% true in my life, almost every other area of life would be perfectly in accordance with the will of Christ... Worshiping in the Beauty of Holiness.
Aaron

Phil 4:9 Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you.

I love Psalms 27:4 but a life verse for me is Col. 2:6-7. Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Also Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spirtual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

"BUT EVEN IF I AM BEING POURED OUT AS A DRINK OFFERING UPON THE SACRIFICE AND SERVICE OF YOUR FAITH, I REJOICE AND SHARE MY JOY WITH YOU ALL." PHIL 2:17

Paul spoke these words knowing it was his last days.

"Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us." Phil 3:17

In His amazing love,
Lowly
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"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls." Matt 11:29

Phil. 3:10-11 "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

I need the constant reminder in my life that the Christian life is not just fellowship with the blessings of Christ, but the fellowship of His sufferings.

No one likes to be reminded of death, but the goal seems to be becoming like Christ in His death, so that in death we may attain the resurrection. Whoa is that powerful! So none of the petty uneasinesses of sharing the Gospel, of turning away from worldly enticements or the gossip and coarse talk of co-workers, are valid in comparison to the goal of resurrection and the eternal weight of glory that awaits us.

SDG,

Dave

I have 2 I think, the first is a word that God has laid on my heart to wrestle with and warn others of, the second is a prayer that God will withhold the judgment on America for the blood of the babies.

I pray He will show our land mercy, and send revival instead of judgment.

[b][color=FF0000]Jeremiah 6:10

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is closed, and they cannot listen: behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach unto them; and they have no delight in it.[/color][/b]

[b][color=FF0000]Joel 2:14

Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?[/color][/b]