3 Ps I’m praying for after 31 revolutions around the sun

Celebrated my 31st birthday last June 27 and I can’t help but reflect on the goodness of my God for the past 3 decades!

I even got to attend Victory Conference, a celebration of 40 years of God’s faithfulness in our church community! I bought the tickets about 2 weeks before the conference and to my surprise, the section I got is patron! Friends thought I bought them early, but I think it’s really just God’s birthday gift for me. All throughout the day, I sensed His delight upon me.

Something about the 30s that really changes your mindset. There’s even a study that states that the part of our brain crucial for decision-making, planning, and impulse control continue to mature during our early 30s!

My prayer is that God continues to mature not just my brain, but also these specific areas of my life:

Perception
I’ve always taken pride in how I don’t see things as they are, but as what they can become. I’ve noticed that I see potential in others and can easily encourage them about it… yet when it comes to myself, it’s a whole different story. I can be so self-critical to the point that I don’t give myself grace.

I need to wear God’s lens and see myself the way He sees me—fully known yet fully loved. And there are things He is calling me to that requires living by faith, not by sight.

Purity
Where my attention goes, my energy flows. And lately, I’ve been struggling with distractions and idle time that, more often than not, lead to sin. This week, our church community will hold our mid-year prayer and fasting… It couldn’t be timelier to be reminded that I am set apart for God.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

Purpose
If you grew up attending youth conferences, camps, and retreats, you’d have heard this word more than a hundred times. By the time you’re 30, people thing you’ve had this figured out. God is teaching me that it’s not exclusively revealed during our teenage years… It’s something He unravels as we walk with Him daily.

Along with gratitude, I can’t help but feel a sense of expectation that I am barely scratching the surface when it comes to God’s great purpose for me and His plans to prosper me.

Things may not have gone the way I’d hope for the first half of the year, yet His assurance of His trustworthiness and the consistency of His faithfulness are enough for me to keep going. His presence has gone before me, He is with me, and His Spirit empowers me.

The best is still ahead!

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." (Isaiah 43:18-19)