What If God Wants to Revive What You’ve Forgotten?

Reflections from a year of praying the word “VIVIFY” and finding God faithful in the smallest ways.

Have you ever felt a stirring — a quiet sense that something deep within you was waking up again? Maybe it’s an old dream, a forgotten joy, or a part of yourself you thought no longer mattered. This past year, my word was VIVIFY, and through it, God began reminding me that He’s not finished with the tender places of my heart. What I thought were forgotten pieces of me were simply waiting for His breath to bring them back to life.

VIVIFY — A Year of God’s Gentle Awakening

Each year, I pray for a single word from the Lord— not as a resolution to keep, but as an invitation to experience.

For 2025, God gave me the word VIVIFY, drawn from Ezekiel 37:5–6, where God breathes life into dry bones, promising restoration and renewal. It felt like an invitation to participate more fully in His transforming work — to not just exist, but to come alive again.

As the year unfolded, I had no ideas what this word would bring, but I began to see how God had been quietly vivifying me — awakening pieces of my heart I didn’t realize had gone still.

He started by stirring little memories — small prayers I had once whispered and long since forgotten. My “Snow White moment” with the birds when I was in kindergarten— that childlike wonder and connection with creation — reemerged as a reminder that He still sees the tender, imaginative parts of me. Then, in another season, my inner “FBI agent” — the curious, observant part of me that loves to seek and uncover truth — came alive again. I realized these weren’t random traits or quirks. They were threads of His design woven into me long ago, now being reawakened by His Spirit.

Through each gentle nudge, God was reminding me:The longings of your childhood still matter to Me.

This year has been less about striving for something new and more about remembering what was already planted — and allowing His breath to bring it to life again. In small, delightful ways, He’s been proving Himself faithful to finish what He started in me — guiding, fulfilling, and nourishing even the quietest desires of my heart.

What Vivify Has Taught Me This Year

Looking back, here are a few truths that have come alive in me through this journey — maybe they’ll stir something in you, too:

• God doesn’t discard our beginnings.

  The dreams, quirks, and curiosities that shaped us as children are not irrelevant — they’re often glimpses of the design He still intends to use.

• Resurrection rarely looks dramatic; it often looks gentle. Vivification happened in small ways — in quiet joy, in rediscovered passions, in noticing beauty again. God’s breath is often a whisper before it becomes a wind.

• Our prayers don’t expire. Even the ones we forgot praying. He holds them, waits for the right season, and breathes life when our hearts are ready to receive again.

• The Holy Spirit revives our seeing. When God vivifies us, He not only restores what’s broken but also renews how we perceive — grace in the mundane, beauty in the overlooked, wonder in the ordinary.

• The process of becoming alive is ongoing. Vivify isn’t a single moment; it’s a continual invitation to let God awaken what’s dormant and sustain what’s divine.

A Reflection Invitation

As you near the close of this year, I invite you to pause and reflect:

• Where have you felt God’s gentle breath reviving something that once felt forgotten or buried?

• What small prayers, passions, or dreams might He be inviting you to revisit with fresh faith?

• If you were to choose one word to pray over for the coming year — not as a goal, but as a guide — what might it be?

Let this be your space to listen, remember, and notice how God has been moving. Because the same Spirit who breathes life into dry bones is still breathing life into you.

This practice of choosing a word each year has become one of my favorite rhythms — not because the word changes everything, but because it changes how I see everything. Each word becomes a lens through which I notice God’s presence in new ways — His kindness in small details, His faithfulness in quiet seasons, His creativity in the unfolding of ordinary days.

So as this year comes to a close, I pray that you, too, will find yourself awakening — not by striving for something new, but by remembering that the God who began a good work in you is still gently, faithfully, beautifully bringing it to life.