Don't forget to check out our NEW BIBLE STUDY PLANS!
Search

In His Presence

FILED UNDER

POSTED ON

January 31, 2024

My mother says, “Old makes way for new” and the cold days of December are no exception. They make way for a fresh new year each January. The days after New Year’s always feel full of potential and anticipation to me. While many people are looking forward to the coming year or accomplishing new goals and resolutions, I take this time to look back. It’s always eye-opening to see how little decisions add up; and how one small shift changes the trajectory of life. I truly believe that taking time to reflect during the month of January re-centers my vision for the year ahead.

As I sit thinking about 2023, I can’t help but notice how much was released. As someone who struggles with control, this was an area of personal breakthrough. I can look back and acknowledge that I wouldn’t have had the capacity for certain opportunities or ideas if I hadn’t released what I was holding on to so tightly. By releasing things that I thought I controlled and staying in God’s presence, I was able to welcome some of the sweetest gifts.

The past year was littered with major transitions in so many areas of life, but those goodbyes made way for unexpected new blessings. Isn’t that just like God? To invite you to release the old in order to embrace the new. But then the Bible reminded me that God is constantly bringing newness into the earth. Isaiah 43:19 says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland”

Newness often sounds exciting but this verse in Isaiah also highlights that despite the newness taking place all around us, we may not even recognize it. I think that sometimes our earthly point of reference skews our discernment of the spiritual. This is why it’s so important for us to stay in His presence. In the book of James, we’re instructed to draw near to God and He will draw near to us (4:8). However, there’s a level of humility that we must display in order to do that. Humbling ourselves means recognizing our limitations and surrendering to God’s will. Only then, are we able to approach Him and receive wisdom, strength, and peace for what’s ahead.

2023 was my own personal lesson in letting go of control. I learned that sometimes we come to God recounting the things that happened to us or rehashing old traumas, when He wants to open our eyes to the newness He’s birthing in, through, and all around us. We hold on to the familiarity of the past instead of releasing it to grasp the unknown of newness. It was in drawing close to God that I had the clarity to see my death grip on situations and also my insufficiency to solve them. Surrender opened my spiritual eyes and softened my heart to all that God had for me in 2023.

So in 2024, I am recentering my vision. My only goal for the year is to stay in His presence… & I challenge you to take time to reflect with the Lord and reset your vision for the season ahead. 

Reflection:

What are you focused on in 2024? How will you intentionally implement your focus? What do you need to release in order to embrace the new? Is your prayer time full of rehashing the past or receiving wisdom for the season ahead?

Sabrian Enoch

Share this post

calendar pages, january, september, gold and white colors, in his presence

Popular Posts

read all —

Unhindered Minds: Winning the Battle for Your Thoughts

Scripture is clear that spiritual warfare is real, and it does not primarily play out in dramatic moments. It happens quietly, internally, thought by thought. Paul reminds us in Ephesians that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces. The enemy rarely begins with overt rebellion. He begins with little lies. A thought here. An assumption there. A narrative repeated often enough that it starts to feel true. Over time, footholds become strongholds when those thoughts go unchallenged. A foothold might sound like, “This is just how I am.” A stronghold sounds like, “This will never change.” Both shape how we live.
Hebrews 12:1 calls us to lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and then it tells us how. We run with endurance by fixing our eyes on Jesus. The race is not just about outward obedience. It is about where our focus rests. What we fix our minds on determines how we run. When our thinking is cluttered, we run distracted and weary. When our thinking is anchored in truth, we run lighter, freer, and with purpose.

Read More

Unhindered Emotions: Why We Need to Steward What We Feel

Emotions are not a design flaw. They are part of God’s good creation. They are not sinful in themselves, even when they feel intense or inconvenient. Jesus, fully God and fully man, felt the full range. Luke tells us He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit with joy that overflowed. John records the shortest verse in Scripture, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), reminding us that sorrow has a place in holy ground. Mark shows us His righteous anger as He looked around at hardened hearts with grief mixed in (Mark 3:5). Matthew lets us overhear His deep distress in Gethsemane when He said, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). Over and over again, we see compassion move Him toward people, not away from them. If Jesus felt emotions without sinning, we need to stop labeling emotions themselves as the problem.

Read More

Steward the Season You’re In

To be unhindered is not to have a flawless plan or a perfectly curated life. It is to clear away the distractions that keep us from being faithful right where we are. It is to remember that our identity is in Christ, not in comparison, not in productivity, not in striving. And because God is our source, we are not dependent on systems that exhaust us. We lean into the Holy Spirit who sustains us. Steward It Well

Read More
a woman running with her child

Unhindered: A Call to Run Freely

And as we sit here in 2026, I think many of us aren’t tangled up in obvious sin and rebellion. We’re actually exhausted by accumulation. Expectations. Distractions. Comparisons. The pressure to do more and be more, even when God hasn’t asked us to.
That’s why the Word of the Year, Unhindered, is so timely and fitting.
We’ve got to get more honest about what we’re carrying. We often assume that spiritual growth and maturity are tied to adding more and increase, but here in Hebrews, we see the opposite. We see release. Casting things off. Laying things aside. Surrender.
It’s an invitation to reflection. What has slowly attached itself to us? What fills our days and dulls our discernment? What keeps us busy, but lacking real fruit?

Read More