Mid-Year PROGRESS REPORT

MID YEAR PROGRESS REPORT

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This is a good time of year to look at how the year has gone so far and to plan for the rest of the year or even start planning for next year. During this time of year, even before I learned that reflecting on the first half of the year is a pattern to follow according to the Hebraic Calendar, I always found myself especially reflective during this time of year. What do you think about when you hear the words “Progress Report”? What type of feelings and memories come to mind when you think about receiving a progress report? For some feelings of anticipation and excitement might over take them, but for the rest of the population feelings on anxiety, worry, and dread may kick in. Some people might start to get all analytical and start to process everything that they did during the time frame that the progress report is for. They think that if they can remember everything that they did that they can then predict or approximate what their score is going to be. Because, let’s be honest: the biggest part of receiving the progress report is what your rating is. Even the people with a relatively clean slate may become concerned about the result of the report depending on who is doing the rating.

What if God is the One who was grading your progress report? What type of score would you get from the beginning of the year until the end of June? Most of us would have a mixed report: some good, some bad, some excellent, and some horrible. This is what it was like for the ancient Hebrew people. They did not have Jesus to pay for their sins yet, so they had to go to the temple or tabernacle to offer sacrifices to “atone” for any sins that they committed from the previous year to the day of their sacrifice. Plus on top of that, they had to depend on a priest to offer their sacrifice for them, they couldn’t offer it themselves. Check out Numbers chapter 15 for more information of the sacrifices for sin that were made. As for us, we can still be tempted to feel like we have to offer some sort of sacrifice or offering to God when we find that we have fallen short or missed the mark. The best thing that we can do in those circumstances is to repent and “cut ties” with any remaining sin in our lives. Sometimes repenting is not the appropriate action to take when for example a bad decision was made or some rule was broken out of ignorance. In those cases seek God and ask for wisdom to have the best answer when faced with a similar situation. Regardless of where your rating falls, remember that God is loving, compassionate, and eager to help you to correct any shortcoming so that you can fulfill His ultimate purpose and destiny for your life. That is the true purpose of the progress report, to map out how close you are to fulfilling your destiny assignments. The progress report is to make you think about how you are living your life and what changes need to be made, but all of that is in the perspective of fulfilling God’s plan for your life.

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It is important to be honest with God and yourself when evaluating how your year has been coming along so far. If you find that your year is not going in the direction you had hoped it to go, you can pray and ask God to get you back on track. If you find that things are going better than expected, stop and give the Lord a praise offering to acknowledge what He is doing in your life. To expand on this idea, we can give God a progress report on how we think He is doing in our lives. Of course we are not going to take points away from God if we don’t have everything exactly perfect in our lives, but we can take time to list the breakthroughs, the triumphs, the provision, and the protection. We can take some time to notice the way that God communicates with us and renew our service and agreement to His plan. We can thank God for His transforming power working in our lives to make all things new.

On a personal note, I am finding that the progress report also has to do with the level of faith and trust in God that I am operating from. By the goodness and faithfulness of God and His promises to us, there are some things that He is going to do for us regardless of what it looks like. The challenge is whether or not we are going to trust Him to do what He said, sometimes its believing that God said anything at all about our situation at all. Faith can be built by learning God’s Word and staying focused on His promises above what the enemy is presenting or doing in our lives. Building trust is through obedience to adhere to the spiritual and natural laws that are found in the Word of God. Let’s face it, it is really difficult to fully obey someone if you do not trust them. So if you find that your trust levels are a little low, take inventory and find out where you are not in full compliance to the Word of God and then make the necessary adjustments to walk in obedience. If your faith levels are low maybe there is something that does not line up with the Word of God that is in the way of you truly believing. Whatever the case may be, God does not reveal these things to us to punish or condemn us, He reveals these things to help us get in alignment so that He can release blessings, favor, and new Kingdom assignments to us.

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Let’s Pray: Father God in the mighty name of Jesus we come to You to thank You for all that You have been doing in our lives. Lord we thank You for walking with us throughout this entire year and that anything that we have been waiting for You are still working behind the scenes to accomplish it in our lives. Lord we thank You for all of the provision and protection You have blessed us with this year, when times were hard Your plan was already in place working everything together for our good. Lord we thank You for the wisdom, revelation, and understanding that You have brought to our lives to see and perceive from a higher perspective all of the things related to our lives, family, jobs, and Kingdom assignments. Lord thank You for answering when we cried out to You, You alone are mighty to save. Lord thank You for moving mountains out of our way and making a path for us through the desert – Nothing is impossible for You! Lord thank You for mending our broken hearts, broken souls, and broken spirits with the Blood of Your Son Jesus. Lord thank You for being a Healer when illness tried to discourage us, for being our Source when lack tried to grip us, and for being the Way when we needed direction. Lord God You are our Power source for when we are weak You are strong. Lord You bless us with joy unspeakable full of glory, happiness, peace, grace, mercy, and loving kindness. Lord we thank You for revealing to us where we are with You and what we can do to get closer to You and deeper in Your will. Lord we ask for divine assistance, grace, favor, and all that we need to accomplish Your kingdom objectives and finish this year strong in the mighty name of Jesus. Lord there are some situations in our lives that we still need You to take care of or show us the answers, solutions, remedies, and antidote so that any manifestation of the enemy that we see today we will see no more. We say that the rest of this year is dedicated to You and Your plans and we ask that You totally have Your way. Lord we are grateful and excited to go on this adventure with You and we agree that Your way is best in every situation and every area of our lives. Lord we ask for help to stay the course to the end and say that You will get all of the glory and honor for all that is on the way in the mighty name of Jesus we pray AMEN!

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Blessings Always,