Choose Your Word! A New Year’s Practice for a Life of SurrenderSample

I will let you into my own thought process for choosing my latest word and verse. I wish for this disclosure to not only open my heart to you but also invite you to open your heart to God.

For much of last year, I studied the leadership transition passages of Scripture, as I considered the future of our organization. I noticed how well King David prepared everything for his successor (1 Chronicles 28–29) and was amazed by David’s awesome prayer. In the waning days of the year, our church small group met and shared favorite Bible verses. At that meeting, one friend cited 1 Chronicles 29:11! That sealed my choice of the text. What seemed an accidental mention was a providential confirmation toward my WAVFTY-AB decision.

The ethos of the rich passage reflects David’s dialogue with God. It highlights God’s character and works, His covenant, and His purposes. Calling God by His covenantal name (LORD), David declares:

Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power

and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,

for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

Yours, LORD, is the kingdom;

you are exalted as head over all.

(1 Chronicles 29:11 NIV)

The recurrence of the second-person pronoun Yours gets my attention. The surrounding verses feature “Your” and “You.” I would be negligent and ignorant not to pick up on the obvious repetition in the poetic portion of David’s prayer (1 Chronicles 29:10–13), especially in verses 11–12: “Yours.” I chose that word.

Much can be extracted from this powerful, beautiful verse through exposition. For the rest of this reading plan, I wish to simply share edifying observations and applications from my WAVFTY-AB method that you can follow in your spiritual practice as well.