As we look back over 2023, have you taken the time to review not only what God has done in America, but also what He has done in your own life?

More importantly, have you looked at what the Lord has done in your own heart to make you more like Jesus?

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Find out when your state prays.

God loves it when we build memorials to honor what He has done. When we review His work in our lives, it pleases and honors Him. (Think of the 12 stones that told the story of how the Israelites crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land!)

So what has the Lord done in you in 2023? Will you pause today and build a memorial of thanksgiving to Him?

For example:

• Has the Lord cured you from worry this year? Did you wear yourself out with worrying in the past, but somehow during 2023 find yourself trusting in God about THAT crucial issue (whatever that issue is)? If so, the Lord has worked a marvelous deliverance for you! I encourage you to praise Him for it!
• Has He healed your heart from prior mistreatment this year? Does that pain which you thought would kill you now feel as if it had happened to somebody else entirely? Has the Lord used some past trauma you went through as your testimony this year, using your story to set others free? If so, He turned your mourning into dancing — so praise Him for that!
• Has He restored your basic sense of safety and love in Him this year? Have you struggled with feeling like God was not for you simply because so many humans were not for you? Has the Lord healed you from that, bringing you back into loving understanding that He is GOOD, and that His goodness is for you, and that no sinful people (not even Christians who sin) can take that from you? If so, rejoice! What a mighty work in your heart!

Friend, it’s easy to get caught up in so much intercession (and even worry) for our nation that we forget God’s ultimate purpose for ourselves as His beloved children.

God’s ultimate purpose for us all as individuals is to conform us to the image of Christ. He will be working at that goal until the trumpet blows and Jesus returns. After all, as the apostle Paul wrote:

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51–53).

When Jesus returns, we shall all be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” We will all be changed because we will all still need to be changed; none of us will be perfectly like Jesus yet! But in that moment, we shall be made like Him, and we shall see Him as He is:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:2–3).

Until then, it will encourage you to notice God’s good work in your heart, just like you notice His good work in our nation or in your church.

And friend, on those days when it’s hard to find good news in this nation, or even in your church, you can always find good news if you look at God’s work in your heart. He is always at work comforting you, healing you, encouraging you, giving you rest, strengthening you, teaching you, and preparing you for the next thing He has for you — even when times are tough.

Beloved, what did God do in your heart this year? How did He strengthen you, heal you, help you, grow you? Comment below!

Jamie Rohrbaugh is the founder and CEO of From His Presence. She is the author of Getting to Know the Sevenfold Holy Spirit, and she seeks to equip you to carry His manifest glory everywhere you go. Her resources have been published by YouVersion Bible Plans and in Charisma magazine, as well as on The Elijah List, Spirit Fuel, and various other ministry outlets. You can find free mentoring on her podcast, Take Your Territory with Jamie Rohrbaugh, which is available through your favorite podcast streaming app. Download her free prayer tool, Praying the Names of God: 555 Biblical Names of God and How to Use Them in Prayer and Worship, here. Photo Credit: Puwadon Sang-ngern’s Images via Canva Pro.