My 2018 Word, Verse and Song

2017 was a great year in my faith walk. My Father God has been working with me to deepen my faith beyond the feelings that at one time were its foundation. God revealed my verse for 2017 early in the year when I was struggling to love the hard to love people in my life. He placed Luke 6:46 on my heart. It reads, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I tell you?” I had spent 2015 and 2016 soaking up the Word, filling myself with knowledge and the beginnings of application. 2017 was about applying the Word to my life wholeheartedly.

Fast forward to this month, December. I began praying for God to reveal what my 2018 verse should be. There were some verses in Romans that spoke to me this fall, but somewhere inside I knew they weren’t the ones. I had been praying and waiting. His timing is PERFECT.

Today I was scrolling on Instagram, and I read an awesome post by someone stating their word, verse and song for 2018. I hadn’t really considered a word or a song. In fact, I’ve rolled my eyes when people chose words to focus on for a year. In my old self, words for a year could only be chosen upon reflection, not looking forward. God is the best at making me eat my words and realize I need to get off my self-righteous high horse. Anyways, that post got me thinking and praying.

To get me in the right mindset, I put on my worship playlist–which has my current faves at the top. As I listened, I prayed and asked for God to not only reveal a verse, but also a word and a song for 2018.

The words abide and obedience were the first to pop into my head, but I realized abide was a popular buzzword in 2017 among Christian culture {am I wrong?}. I then moved onto love, but that wasn’t it either.

I decided to also pay attention to what my favorite worship songs say in their lyrics–the ones I have on repeat. I put on Death was Arrested and continued my search / prayer for a word and verse.

Since Romans has been on fire this fall, I started looking at the verses that stood out to me and what the themes were. It was clear: they were about being free from sin, no longer enslaved. In that same moment, the song went into these lyrics: Oh, we’re free, free, Forever we’re free, Come join the song, Of all the redeemed, Yes, we’re free free, Forever amen, When death was arrested and my life began. Could God shout any louder to me?!?!?!?! I got chills and teared up.

In the YouVersion app I did a search for the word free and the first verse that popped up was, John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” I looked up the context to make sure it aligned with freedom from sin’s hold. Do I even have to tell you? You know it totally did. That’s God.

Throughout all of this, I was on the Marco Polo app with two of my closest sisters in Christ. My friend reflected on 2017,  her word and verse. While listening to her reflect, the Lord revealed to me why abide and obedience were on my mind: my verse for 2017 was all about obedience. “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I tell you?” {Luke 6:46} It was like He was telling me, “Laura-Jane, you had a word this year. You didn’t realize it until now, but I knew all along. You could have asked, and I would have shared sooner.”

2017 has been amazing. I cannot wait to see how the Holy Spirit works in me in 2017.

My word for 2018 is FREE.

My song for 2018 is Death was Arrested.

My verse for 2018 is John 8:36.