Wednesday... So what are we hoping for in 2025?

Psalm 62:5 (NLT), "Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him."

Wednesday... So what are we hoping for in 2025?

That's a very good question, What do we want in this new year?

There was this brother in the Old Testament who stole his brother's birthright. Jacob was his name and his brother was Esau and their mother heard Esau say to their dad that he was going to kill his brother. And their mom sent Jacob to go and live with her brother. Now after 20 years Jacob decided he wanted to go home and because he always seemed to come out as a winner he started his trip even though he was a little afraid.

Maybe you have some fears as you face what you are hoping for in 2025.

So Jacob sent these messengers ahead to tell his brother Esau that he was coming. He thought he needed to prepare the way for him to see his brother and to see how he might respond to him. So he told them, in Genesis 32:4-6 (NLT), "Give this message to my master Esau: 'Until now I have been living with Uncle Laban, and now I own cattle, donkeys, flocks of sheep, and many servants, both men and woman. I have sent these messengers to inform my lord of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to me.' After delivering the message, the messengers returned to Jacob and reported, 'We met with your brother, Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you - with an army of 400 men!'" Yes, it looked like there could be major problems in getting what he was hoping for and that could be true for you too but he continued because he always had been a winner.

So he set into motion plans to prepare the way for him to get what he hoped for. And they were great plans but after he had set them into motion he found himself alone with a man who happened to be God and a wrestling match between them happened. Jacob wanted God's blessing on his plans but God had another idea. He wanted to change Jacob from the person who wanted what he wanted and who would do whatever he could to get it to happen. But God had another plan that he had set into motion and Jacob had to change.

Sometimes we wrestle with God over what we want and we seem to win. We think we know best but God has another plan and for it to come about we need to change.

Verse 28 says, "'Your name will no longer be Jacob,' the man told him. 'From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.'"

Now earlier in verse 25 it says, "When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wretched it out of its socket." God wanted there to be a reminder that would be with Jacob the rest of his life that God is really the winner and that we need him to really win.

David writes in Psalm 62:5 (NLT), "Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him." We may think we are winners but are we really without God? And sometimes we need to be reminded of that fact.

Now there was a good ending to this story because God blessed him. And we need God's blessing on us as we face this new year.

David says in Psalm 62:5, "Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him." And we need to be reminded of that fact as we face 2025. We may think we are always winners but are we really?

Verses 30-21 in Genesis 32 says, "Jacob named the place Peniel (which means 'face of God'), for he said, 'I have seen God face to face, yet my life was spared.' The sun was raising as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip." "Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him." Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit?

Nehemiah 6:16b (NLT), "They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit? Over in the Old Testament in the book of Nehemiah it tells of a major task that through the leadership of Nehemiah was accomplished. The walls of Jerusalem had been torn down and God had laid it on Nehemiah to build those walls back up. It was definitely an almost impossible task but Nehemiah 6:15-16 says, "So on October 2 the wall was finished - just fifty-two days after we had begun. When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Now, we so many times want to take credit for doing the impossible. It would make such a difference for us. But I wonder what would happen through us if God got the credit? Psalm 96 tells us what we are to do. Verses 2-3 says, "Sing to the LORD; praise his name. ...

Tuesday... We just have trouble listening.

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Tuesday... We just have trouble listening. Over in Jeremiah 25:4 (NLT) it says, "Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention." And Jeremiah went on to tell what was going to happen. There will be consequences if we do not listen to what God says through his Word. Now the Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians was having a problem with some professed Christ followers who were having trouble at listening. And we too can have problems at listening. We can think that being a Christ follower means we do a lot of finger pointing and we give up on people who don't do what we say. We can even do that in our families. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." In verse ...

Thursday... Yet, now this is true.

Colossians 1:22a (NLT), "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body." Thursday... Yet, now this is true. Now Paul a prisoner in Rome is writing a letter to a church in Colossae. And in Colossians 1:21 (MSG) he says, "Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds" The NLT says "This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated by your evil thoughts and actions." And that is where so many in this world live today. They are blowing it and they don't know what to do. Yes, they are hostile in their minds and they are engaging in evil deeds but there is Good News. Now Paul in verses 19-20 sets the stage for an answer to those who don't want to live that way. He says, "For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and earth b...

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