One Word for 2019: Renew

to make like new : restore to freshness or perfection

Every year, I briefly ponder choosing One Word for my year. Normally, I cant settle on one, or I dont really even take the time to think about what my word should be. I wasn’t planning on choosing a word for 2019 either, content to step into a new year without a sure sense of direction. But the word RENEW keeps bouncing around my head and heart, like the Lord is whispering for me to pick it up. To put it on, drape it across my shoulders like a promise, or perhaps simply as a reminder or what is already true. I don’t know what renewal will look like. I don’t know if 2019 will be a year of renewing strength, of being made new. Or if, like the Merriam-Webster dictionary says, I will be restored to freshness (this is the one I’m hoping for, obviously). 

I find certainties like this admittedly hard. Sometimes renewal doesn’t look like we want, right? Sometimes the promises God whispers are fulfilled differently than we expected or hoped. But I do actually believe we can be made new. That we can be given hearts of flesh for stone, I believe in fresh starts, in renewal. The only question is if I’m brave enough to believe it for myself. 

What it might look like to live this year in expectant hope of renewal? To walk in the sureness of the promise that the Lord’s Word will not return void. That He is a Father who renews and restores, that He will make all things new. 

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. - Isaiah 40:31 

He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. - Ruth 4:15

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. - Isaiah 61:4