Count your blessings! End of year review

If you are like me and most Christians, you've probably heard the phrase "count your blessings" and even name them one by one. So, as I thought of a post title, that came to mind. It is the end of the year and 2016 went by quickly and tomorrow will begin a New Year. Most of us use this as a time to reflect on our past year and make New Year's resolutions for the upcoming year.

So what exactly is a New Year's resolution? According to the Wikipedia, "A New Year's resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behavior."

I don't know about you, it seems like my resolution every year is usually the same: 

1. I want to eat more vegetables and fruits
2. I want to work out
3. I want to save and become financially stable......

... and the list continues. So instead of making the same resolution over and over again, lets count all of our blessings from 2016, and pray that 2017 will be filled with joy, laughter, goodness and mercy. 

If I can be honest with you, the Lord has definitely stretched me and took me through more than I bargained for. So as we count our blessings, how about we add in our trials too, because we all know it is through our testing we are stretched. In 2016, my husband and I began our ministry, we started Ladies let's pray and DFC ministries, our desire was to share the gospel and what we had learned to others.

 We were living in beautiful Malibu California, enjoying the beautiful weather and beaches. We truly enjoyed living there. But you will be surprise to know that we spent the majority of our time in the word of God and learning as mush as we could. But I must say, it was truly a blessing and a privilege we had living there for 2 years.

  In June 2016, Brian and I had our officially wedding celebration with our friends and family, and yes! it was a highlight for our year. 

 For those that don't know, the Lord called us to California 2 years ago to begin a new journey and literally changed our lives. Before moving to California, we were spiritually immature and knew nothing about the word of God. We were like most Christians, following the dogmatic "Christianity", which literally means going to church on Sunday and going about our own affairs during the week. Mixing the world with a little bit of church. When we moved to California, the Lord began teaching us the true word of God and yes, it was indeed without a church building. The same Bible the preacher uses to preach is also available to anyone of us to read. So we began reading and as we read our eyes became more open to the true knowledge of Christ. We dedicated an entire 2 years in California as the Lord began to transform and change everything we had previously knew. We were separated from the rest of the world, from our family, from our friends. We also experienced and met a lot of people in California that were into the spirituality of darkness, and we found it fascinating that the Lord gave us discernment against those people and their practices. If I can give anyone motherly advice, whenever you visit a foreign land, take your Bible, pray and read it. The Lord surely protected us from a lot of headache out there. My husband calls our time in Cali, "Spiritual bootcamp". So fast forward 2 years later, almost to a tee, the Lord gave us a vision and wisdom to move back to Virginia. Within a few weeks we packed up our bags and left California. We are now back home with family and currently living in my in-laws estate and by the grace of God, we are hoping to build our home on the property soon.

Most of you also came to my blog this year, from my Ladies let's pray prayers and also my monthly Bible study. My passion is to encourage young women in the faith and to help women mature in Christ. My prayers are that you've been encouraged by the prayers and the studies. We finished our last study for this year in November in the book of James. I took a break from writing prayers and the monthly studies, because I had some challenges. The Lord began challenging me spiritually and biblical, because a lot of the things I thought I knew about the word of God began to change and expand. I was first challenged to get rid of my NLT Bible, and other translation and stick to a King James version. I realized some of the translations in those Bible's were contradictory to the true original transcript. I was also convicted that most of the preaching we hear today in our modern churches are completely deceiving people into destruction. I will elaborate on my next post. 

My plan for the upcoming year is to go deep in the word of God for those that are up for the challenge. I will begin posting on YouTube as well. For anyone that currently follows me please be encouraged and the Lord will surely provide you with the strength to grow and mature in Him. 

With love, always 

JoyfullyOsato.