What God Taught Me in 2021

WOW. There are many things that I could share that God has done in the past year of 2021, but to say that it was simply, ALL GOD, is perfect. He has shown me His faithfulness, mercy, and kindness in so many ways that I am very excited to share. Recently, I have been reading The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. In the final pages of his book, he challenges us to “pass on what you know to others.” God used this to speak to my heart about this blog. I absolutely love writing for Salt and Light and what God teaches me, I want to share because maybe it can help someone else who might be needing to hear it. I know that God has taught me this past year and I pray that He will continue to teach me more things. Similarly, Rick Warren shared that, “Those who pass along insight, get more from God. If you want to keep growing, the best way to learn more is to pass on what you have already learned.” The bible says in Proverbs 11:25,

“The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself.”

I pray that in sharing five lessons/amazing things God has done, that it would be to HIS GLORY and encouragement to others.

God taught me was about trusting Him. During the summer of 2021, I was getting ready to go to super summer. It is a week-long Christian camp where you spend most of your time going from classroom-like atmospheres, learning and hearing the Word of God being taught. I could not wait for this experience and to see what God was going to teach me. Around this same time, I prayed God would show me and give me a desire for Heaven. I wanted to gain a kingdom mindset that was set on Heaven. Little did I know that God would answer this prayer in a way I would not have thought, but so perfect. When I went to super summer, I was surrounded by solid believers, yet I was so fearful and lonely. The enemy was trying to lie to me and rob me of the joy I had, by reminding me how much I missed the comfort of my family and my sister, with whom I do almost everything. I felt more alone and afraid than I ever had in my entire life, but God was teaching me the truth of this verse:

“Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” James 1:2-3

God knew exactly what He was doing. First, He was leading me to trust in Him as my hope, Savior, and peace. Second, by learning to trust the Lord with my whole heart, He gave me a desire and hope for Heaven where there will be no trials, but perfect joy and peace with my GOD! Therefore, the Bible challenges us to welcome hard times because they lead us closer and deeper to the Lord. Also, my personality is the opposite of this because I love to focus on the good, fun, and positive things in life, but God showed me this summer that I have to face the hard things to see the GOOD, which is only found in HIM. I pray to remember this lesson that God has taught me moving forward. He is a powerful God. I am so thankful that He is my ever-present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1) and He is victorious over sin and the enemy and those IN Christ are considered “more than conquerors through Him” (Romans 8:37). Through wisdom shared from my parents, they reminded me to look to the Victory of Christ found in the cross and the eternal joy we have in Christ, despite our temporary circumstances. AMEN!

“...looking unto Jesus, the author, and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” -Hebrews 12:2

God taught me about His character. Because of Him and this past year, I can confidently say that He is a faithful, loving, kind, and powerful/sovereign God. Faithful: He has answered so many prayers this past year that I cannot even list or share them all. This was nothing I did, it was all Him. He has shown me how faithful He is to be with me and faithful to hear me. What a Savior. Loving: through super summer and learning to truly trust Him, I was reminded of His great love towards us. I cannot understand why a Holy God would care for such a sinner like me, but He does and I am so grateful. I see His love in the way He is working all around me and this year was a beautiful example of that. Kind: God showed me His kindness in blessing me with things that I do not deserve. He is a kind God who loves to place little reminders of His love all around us. Whether it is creation, encouragement from friends/family, or something from His Word, He is kind. Sovereign: God taught me that He is a sovereign God. He is absolutely in control of every aspect of our lives and His Hand is always working. God showed me this through Jackson and our relationship and how He is the only one to be given glory as HE has orchestrated it and answered so many prayers.

God taught me that He desires/commands obedience. During the summer and fall of 2021, God put it on my heart to do a bible study with the girls in our youth group to share what God had taught me during the summer about God’s truth > enemy’s lies. I prayed and honestly, was stubborn to God about doing it. I was fearful and scared because, as I shared previously, I dislike difficult/hard things and value more of the fun/exciting things, and so to share about the difficult time I went through, I was fearful. God continued to work on my heart through sermons I would hear, lyrics from music I was listening to, and from encouraging words people would speak. After many months, God continued pressing this on my heart and I decided to obey Him even though I was scared; do not let me fool you, it took many months. I talked with my amazing youth pastor and he helped organize for us to start meeting on Sunday nights for three weeks in December. We met for three weeks and focused on how we can look to Jesus and His example (Matthew 4:1-11) of overcoming Satan’s lies with God’s truth. We learned how God gives His believers, His Word (The Sword of the Spirit) and the armor of God to put on to stand against the enemy's schemes. Using scripture, we chose a verse that would help us to memorize and use to refute a lie that we were facing. Each time I left this bible study for those three weeks, I left praising God for all that HE was doing. I am so inadequate and unworthy to be used by Him. He taught me that “In my weakness, He is strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9). He was moving in our time of sharing and prayer for each other and I am still in AWE of Him today that He used that bible study to help those girls that I love deeply. I asked God what purpose He had for this bible study because He has encouraged me to do it for so long. He taught me very quickly, that even though I was “leading” it, I was the one who needed to hear this again. WOW. Through preparing and studying for the lessons, God was growing me and teaching me so many things He knew I needed to be reminded of. That is the hand of the Lord and I am so grateful to HIM for this girl’s bible study.

God has shown me that He is a God who answers prayers. He has answered so many prayers in my life that I cannot even share them all, but I will share some with you. I have prayed for a few years for my best friend to be saved and give her life to Jesus and this year on May 4, 2021, she decided to follow Jesus!! AMEN!! In the summer of 2020, God laid it on my heart to pray for Jackson and a year later, in the summer of 2021, God allowed me and Jackson to begin dating. What is completely the Lord, Jackson had been praying for me at the same time for a year! THAT IS GOD! The Lord answered my prayer for growth in Him and His Word. He answered a prayer for opportunities to teach/ speak about Him. On October 20th, 2021, He opened the door for me to speak at FCA’s Fields of Faith. He allowed me to share with my youth group on August 4th, 2021. He allowed me to help with the 6th-8th grade girl’s Sunday school class twice in the fall. He answered a prayer for my future career that I should do for Him. He answered a prayer about using me in my youth group by blessing me with the sweetest friendships with the girls in it and our prayer groups. He grew the devotional group for salt and light. He gave me friends who love Jesus with their whole hearts and push me closer to Him every day. He has blessed Girls of Grace and allowed us to be at our high school and junior high this fall. WOW, ALL HIS GLORY! I have never seen the Lord move so much in my life before, through answering prayers, opening and closing doors, allowing me opportunities to teach His Word, and blessing me with family/friends and a church family who love Jesus and point me to Him every day. I pondered why I just began to see all He was doing this year? Had He been doing things the whole time my eyes just had not been open to see them? God reminded me of a verse that I heard in my friend Collin’s bible study on spiritual disciplines:

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” -Colossians 4:2 NIV

“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.” -Colossians 4:2 KJV

I believe, wholeheartedly, that God has used people in my life to open my eyes to what He is doing all around me. Something I love that God has instilled in Jackson is the way he lives out this verse. God uses him to show me this every day. We should not just pray and then close our eyes, but pray and be WATCHFUL for His sweet, beautiful, and providential ways He answers prayers. Then if He answers your prayers, be so thankful to Him. I love this lesson and pray God will continue to show me more about how to live it out.

Finally, God taught me how I must live for the approval of God, not man. This is a lesson that God has had to remind me of many times over the years and still today as I am writing this, it is a struggle for me. It does not matter if I am cheering on the side lines, at church, or around my family and friends, many times I try to, sadly, win their approval. God used my amazing mom to help me with this and reminded me that I must live for God’s approval only. I am so thankful for my sweet mom and her wisdom that teaches me and leads me to the Lord over and over again. I did not see it but a lot of my time and efforts were being spent on trying to please people and achieve “perfection” that I was not even being myself--who God created me to be. Earlier, I mentioned that God was teaching me again what I needed to hear through the girls’ bible study, a lie from the enemy I was facing was the lie of perfection and approval of people. I am grateful to God as He teaches me this lesson today. A verse I am memorizing for this:

“Am I now living for the approval of man or God? Or am I now trying to please people? If I were living for the approval of man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” -Galatians 1:10

I pray throughout this blog post that YOU see JESUS. HE is the one who has done all of this and I am so in awe of Him that I wanted to share it with you. While writing this, God reminded me of all that HE has done. I am looking forward to the future year when I can look back on all that HE taught me in 2021. I cannot wait to see what He will teach me in the next year. If you would like to share all that God has taught you, feel free to email me:) khigdon04@gmail.com. I love each of you so much and pray this next year is full of the LORD growing your heart closer to HIS in 2022. <3 Keatyn