The Shannah Manah: the Year of Appointed Change

Today I finally got around to walking to the Canada post mailbox to send off Christmas/New Years cards. And as I was walking back in the cold, with the wind in my face and the snow circling up off the snowbanks; with my hood up and my head down, I faced it step by step. At one point I started to feel a little out of breath but I kept going. And when the wind died down a bit I looked up and I looked back, and I realized that I had just climbed a hill and I didn’t even realize it because as I was looking at my feet as I walked, it looked like flat ground. And I started to think. It reminded me of my spiritual journey. For me my whole life I have always had to take things step by step. God never showed me what my future was going to look like or glimpses of my ultimate goal. But He did always give me my next step. Just the very next step. And I’d have to wait until I completed that step until I received the next one. And walking that way step by step, you don’t realize until much further down the road how far you’ve come. That’s me. But for others, it may be the opposite. Maybe God has given you the picture of your destination and you’re standing at the bottom of the hill looking up and wondering “how on earth do I get there?”

In whatever way God leads and guides you, we all still struggle with the underlying problem of just getting there. That’s why it’s called a JOURNEY. The word journey is derived from the Latin word diurnum, which means “daily portion”.

Our journey is a day by day encounter whether we know where we are headed or not.

It’s a step-by-step process whether we like it or not.

I think this is the perfect topic to start the new year and I find the step-by-step process so exciting because it gives God all the glory and honour that He deserves!

In my morning devotionals as of late, it’s been talking a lot about the new year and what different Hebrew words mean and how scripture is there for us to study and learn from, in the most God-glorifying way! Let me give you two examples:

1. A year as we know it is 365 days. (Sometimes 366). But according to scripture, the meaning of the word is actually so much more. The Hebrew word for year is Shannah, which means TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. The first meaning of the word Shannah is linked to the number two. It can mean the second, the duplicate, or the repeat. So this relates in the sense that a year is actually repeating what already happened: spring summer fall winter. Spring summer fall winter. One year is the same as the last. BUT the second meaning of the word Shannah is CHANGE! So how can it mean both repetition AND change when they are such different meanings? In the same way the year ahead can be either! So let this year be a year of change, of breaking out of the old, not of living in the repetition of the natural, but in the newness of the supernatural!

2. In Scripture it is written “Teach us to number our days.” In the Hebrew, the word for number is Manah. That same word Manah means more than just to number your days, but to PREPARE and APPOINT them! And how can you prepare or appoint your days before they happen? Prayer. Prayer isn’t only for what is, but for what is not yet. Although you cannot determine what is going to happen, if you appoint your days to God before they happen, your actions become vessels of blessing and life!

These two devotionals happened spread out rather than back to back, but it seems every time I forget about what to plan for the new year, I am reminded again by the Spirit’s nudges. I’m learning so many things about how to better my life and it gets hard to apply them all when there are so many! I want to live simpler, with less emphasis on owning STUFF and more emphasis on EXPERIENCES. I want to save more, own less, do more, and waste less time on social media, the internet, and watching TV. I want to have more time for the important things and the important people in my life.

And most of all, I need to be content with where I am in life right NOW! Because this very moment leads to the very next.

And I want to appoint my very next moment to be in line and in sync with God’s plan for my life. And how do I make sure that this happens? By being alert, alive, and conscientious in this VERY MOMENT. I want to make a different in this world for the sake of God’s glory and I can’t do that without God’s grace! I want to “take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ” but I know I will fail. And God knows we will fail. But that’s also why He encourages us and gives us His grace.

And so, even though I look ahead in uncertainty at what this next year may bring, I know that his grace is sufficient for me and that all I can do is take it step by step. I want my next year to be full of change and I want it be appointed and prepared by God. And whether you see the outcome but are unsure of the steps, or whether you know your next step but are unsure of the outcome, I pray that your New Year will be a Shannah Manah!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!