2020 was prophesied to be the perfect vision. The double portion. Blessings upon blessings. Voices from all over the world proclaimed 2020 to be the year of fulfillment and jubilee.
At the start of 2020, my inbox was full of prophecies of the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of the Lord’s favor, the new season of Yahweh’s grace. (Is 61:2, NKJV, NIV, TPT)
Nevertheless, this year will be recorded worldwide as the worst year of this generation. It will be remembered for loss and grief, fear and uncertainty. In our books, that is. But what does it look like from Heaven’s perspective?
How did we respond to a year of tribulation?
Did we love one another? Did we reach out to our neighbor, even in times of isolation, to provide comfort and nurturing? How about that neighbor who believed in something else or voted for someone else? Did we still love well?
Did we give in to fear or was God still our source of hope and salvation? When hit by anxiety, did we turn to Netflix or God to soothe our weary souls? Did we react to the outer circumstances or respond to the call of Heaven?
What was our response when we could no longer gather? Did we kick and scream, threaten and sue, or did we seek other ways to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God?
At a time of great uncertainty, did we hurl accusations, shift blame, and succumb to self-promotion? Or did we seek out opportunities to restore, refine, and reconcile?
Was God glorified – through us – in the year of 2020?
Looking back at many of the prophesies spoken over 2020 at the beginning of the year, we naturally see them in a different light now. Everything looks different in the rearview mirror.
Did we get a double portion? Well, some might say that we got a triple portion of pain, grief, and misery. But what if what we got, was a greater revelation of a God who is steadfast when we stumble, who lights up our densest darkness, and who carries us when we can no longer stand?
What if this year was one of mercy and revelation?
This is the acceptable year of the Lord. Every year when he lets himself be found, is a year of favor. Our God has not abandoned us.
Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity (…)
Jer 29:12-14, NKJV
This is a season of Yahweh’s new grace. We learn to encounter the Light in the darkness.
And this Living Expression is the Light that bursts through gloom –
the Light that darkness could not diminish.
John 1:5, TPT
He has not changed. Our God is still our eternal home, our perfect hiding place. He covers us with his feathers and gives us refuge under his wings. He is our dwelling place. Or in words of the wonderful Message version of Moses’ prayer:
God, it seems you’ve been our home forever;
long before the mountains were born,
long before you brought earth itself to birth,
from “once upon a time” to “kingdom come” – you are God.
Ps 90:1-2, MSG
A home in times of trouble.
A home in times of prosperity.
Our forever home.