Counting Blessings – #012: What’s New With You? (Did you know God moves in different ways?)

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. – Isaiah 55:8

A quick recap muna, and guess what? Your little siszum will end this year thankful 🥹. God did it. ✨

I started the year with a thankful heart and the confidence that God is with me, even without knowing what the days ahead would bring. I was excited to embrace the challenges and looked forward to more surprises, what God has stored for me this year.

I met new people. I learned to embrace more the program I used to hate 😅 and the people the Lord placed in my life, especially in my workplace. I started my blog—my little digital diary. I explored different coffee flavors, got to cover songs from one of my favorite OPM bands, went on coffee dates with my sib and cousins, read books, and watched podcasts, met one of my favorite authors, went on a quick trip with a close friend to one of my favorite places, and finished reading the Bible again this year 🙌🏻. (You can also read more about these in the previous chapters of this blog 😊.)

But unexpected things happened this year. I never thought those days would come. I believed I could move forward easily because I learned that if I didn’t want baggage in my heart, I should pray for it, name it, and surrender it to the Lord. That’s what I did, but, I almost forgot about the process.

Hurt. Pain. Heartbreak. Crying nights. Feeling stuck. Feeling lost.

I prayed to God, telling Him what I truly felt and placing my trust in Him again and again. Yet there’s a part of me that realizes what I thought I had surrendered to the Lord was not fully surrendered.

Me, again:

Restart. Refocus. Trust Him.

There was a time when I asked myself if I was going crazy. My thoughts were messy. But I’m still searching for a way to get back on track with God. I long for isolation, yet I keep reminding myself that I need people. I keep pushing myself to join in fellowship even when I don’t feel like it. And sometimes I wonder, what if God is bringing me into a season where it’s just Him and me? Just the two of us.

I still don’t know which path I’m taking, or where God is leading me.

Is this what they call the wilderness? Or a hidden season—where God wants me to remain unseen for now, as His way of protecting me?

I don't know…

But, there is always peace when I hear this familiar verse found in Proverbs 3:5–6:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”

My mind is still full of noise. I’m still distracted. I thought I was already healed from the things I surrendered to the Lord, but God desires a daily surrender to Him. I get it now, healing takes time.

Indeed, transformation is a daily process, and so is surrendering to Him.

I release unforgiveness, self-doubt, and bad habits, and I'll start this year with a renewed mind—focused on Jesus and choosing to fully trust in Him, especially in the process, because He truly sees everything. His ways are higher than mine, and I cannot truly comprehend His thoughts.

I remind myself again that I live in a broken world, where temptations to sin are everywhere. But there is a truth I can always hold on to: I am one of God’s children. He is with me. He is always present. His presence is enough.

Jesus is enough—more than enough.

May I trust Him more and truly learn to rely on Him, resting in His character.

God is able. He heals. He restores. He redeems.

Keep moving forward, self, and to you as well. :)

May this coming year be more and more of Him and less of me.

More of Him and less of me.

Keep trusting the Lord. 

Above all else, I thank God today because I will end this year with a grateful heart. There is always something to be thankful for. I choose to count every little blessing that happened in my “not-so-best year” yet—even if it looked messy and unpredictable. Woooh!! 

Parang dahil mas naka-focus ako sa bad days, or dahil sa pagod na medyo naka-affect sa mental health and my way of connecting with people, I kinda forgot yung mga little good things na nangyari sa akin this year. (I rebuke the enemy’s tactics in the Name of Jesus 🙏🏻).

Sooo, this will be my last entry for the year 2025.

Happy New Year! 💛✨

peace. love. joy.