2021: My Year of Testimonies (Part 1)

“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
– Luke 8:39 ESV

HAPPY NEW YEAR! After unexpectedly being gone for a year, I am back. Today, I want to just glorify God by sharing what he has been doing my life. I opted not to include all the testimonies, but there are many that have been shared with family and friends, and now I can share them with you all! If you’re ready for evidence of God’s grace, love, provision and wonders, keep reading.

This goes back a little further than 2021. The Lord has been blessing me even before I accepted him as my Lord and personal Savior on December 31st, 2015. But in 2020 and 2021, God really showed out. I am sharing this because I want to illustrate for you how God can bless you and when he blesses, he doesn’t hold back. When he promises, he never fails. If it were up to me, I would keep it all private, but these blessings are not about me. It’s for God to get the glory!

The 2020 Recap
2020 was one interesting and unique year. It was almost like the Lord gave me a revelation that something catastrophic was going to happen because I had booked a ticket to Florida on January 1st, 2020, to enjoy a mini vacation. That year, I was working a job that I had a love-hate relationship with, my pay was horrible and I was feeling burnt out. In the same year, I finally made a decision to let go of a past relationship, which opened a door for God to bless me in a mighty way. The pandemic hit in March and I was really assured that God was going protect and preserve me (Ps 121:7-8). However, there were definitely some obstacles!

My lease was up on March 30th, 2 weeks after schools closed down. I was begging my landlady to allow me to stay for a few more months, but she refused. The irony is, I wanted to get out of that place so bad, and dreaded the idea of having to stay. I had about 9 days to move out and I still couldn’t find a place. About 5 days until my lease was up, I had 3 showings. The first two were horrible. When I got to the third house, I asked the Lord to let it be the one. I looked at the place and fell in love. The landlady gave me the keys the next day and told me that I was lucky because she was going on vacation the next day!

Now with the stimmy checks coming in heavily, I had enough saved to buy a new car. My little Hyundai Sonata was approaching death. I told the Lord I was tired of getting repairs on my old car, when I could be paying offering, or being a blessing to someone. Let me tell you; the Lord heard me! He upgraded me from a small car to a 4×4 (you know short people like big cars).

Amidst the pandemic, God saw it fit for me to meet my now husband, Emmanuel. I was virtually attending a wedding and helping out with the Zoom technicalities for my friend’s wedding. I was just there, doing me, single as a dollar bill, excited to help a friend! According to my husband’s story, that’s where he saw me. He was supposed to be the best man, but because of COVID, he couldn’t attend, which I will forever be grateful for.

I went on and enjoyed my summer. I started my blog, which was led by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. My desire was really to be honest and transparent about my personal walk with God, and how the Lord has helped me. It was to encourage those people who were just like me… recently saved, a little holy and hood, or figuring out their faith walk. It has been a blessing.

I was trusting God for my independent license and unfortunately I failed on October 5th, but it was all a part of the Lord desire to make 2021 my year of testimonies.

October 2020, God opened a door for me to work at a new job, that I don’t even remember applying to, with amazing pay, my own office and the option to work from home. I had the most supportive angels working with me. Trust me, I don’t even think I qualified for the job. I was transitioning to a job in Hospice, yet I had worked in schools my entire career. But the Lord allowed me to find favor in the sight of my boss, who literally loved me from the day she met me until now.

During a whole pandemic, I got hired, had job security and worked from home almost every day. My job was so simple that most weeks, I would work about 5-6 hours a week, because things were so slow. Mind you, I was still getting paid for 40 hours. It gave me room to do a lot of wedding planning, blogging and more. 2020, I had the best Thanksgiving and Christmas of my life. The Lord blessed and favored me.

I am not saying any of this to brag on me, but to brag on GOD. I want to give the Lord Almighty ALL of the thanks because I had NO idea he was going to do what he did. Zero. But as the Word of God says in Luke 8, the Lord admonished the man who was demon possessed to go and testify what the Lord had done for him. Indeed, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Rev 12:11).

These things contributed to my testimonies:
Gratitude (1 Thessalonians 5:8)
God’s Grace (Romans 5:8)
Prayer (Mark 11:24, John 15:7)
Trust (Philippians 4:6, Matthew 6:25-34 )
Faith (Hebrews 11:1-6)
Service to God in Church (1 Corinthians 15:8, Colossians 3:23-24))
Being a Giver and a Helper (Philippians 2:4, Hebrews 13:16, Luke 6:38, Romans 12:13)
Tithing (Malachi 3:10)

The rest of the testimonies, love stories and things, will be revealed in Part 2. I am so excited for you to hear about the 2021 recap. But for now, and as always, let’s pray.

Lord, we just want to thank you for your grace, mercies and your favor. It is not that anyone of us deserves what you bless us with, but we have confidence in you and know that we can depend on you. Father, may this year be my year of testimonies! I see the blessings that you are pouring out on others, and I know that my blessing is definitely in the neighborhood. If there is anything that I need to work on this year that will help me to prepare for these testimonies, prepare me. Allow me to turn my disappointments into praise, trusting you that in due time, you will make things beautiful. This year, help me to be grateful and show gratitude in all circumstances.

For those who want to tap into this grace, and this assurance and this confidence that we have in Christ Jesus to turn the tough times into testimonies, repeat after me:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite you to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow you as my Lord and Savior. In your name I pray, Amen.

Sincerely Yours, Lydia.