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

Monday... He did it by Himself

Isaiah 44:24b (AMP), "I am the Lord, Maker of all things. Who alone stretches out the heavens, Who spreads out the earth by Myself." Monday... He did it by Himself. Many have a tendency to think very highly of themselves and what they can do. Oh we do have great ability but we are not the source. Yes it is important to have self-confidence but we are limited. The prophet Isaiah in 44:9-10 (NLT) says, "How foolish are those who manufacture idols. These prized objects are really worthless. The people who worship idols don't know this, so they are all put to shame. Who but a fool would make his own god - an idol that cannot help him one bit?" Now later in verse 24 (AMP) he writes, "For the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb says, 'I am the Lord, Maker of all things, Who alone stretches out the heavens, Who spreads out the earth by Myself.'" I love that. "By Myself." Now we do need confidence but we are foolish to ma...

Friday... We have this hope of expectancy.

Psalm 5:3 (NLT), "Listen to my voice in the morning Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly." Friday... We have this hope of expectancy. Now David found a great way to start his day. He says in Psalm 5:1-3 (NLT), "O LORD, hear me as I pray." And that is a great place to start. It really is. Morning sunrise He goes on, "Listen to my cry for help, my King, my God, for I pray to no one but you." And that is so important. We don't try to pump ourselves up by ourself. No, we pray to no one but you, God, my LORD, my King. Now this relationship with God is so, so very important. And then David says, "Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you" And that is so great. And then he says, "and wait expectantly." Yes, we have this hope of expectancy. We are experienced. That is what a relationship with God and a moment by moment connection does. It makes a difference in our daily wa...

Friday... Yes, we can know this to be true.

Psalm 12:6 (NLT), "The Lord's promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over." Friday... Yes, we can know this to be true. Maybe this is what you want to say in this day in which we live. Psalm 12:1-2 (MSG) says, "Quick, I need your helping hand! The last decent person just went down, all the friends I depend on gone. Everyone talks in lie language; lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues." Do you ever feel that way?" Have you found that to be true? Well David the writer of this Psalm continues and says in verse 6 something to encourage us, to lift us up, to give us hope. Psalm 12:6 (NLT) says, "The Lord's promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over." The Message Paraphrase says verses 6-8 this way, "God's words are pure words, pure silver words refined seven times in the fires of his word-kiln, pure on earth as well as in heaven, God, keep ...

Todays Beginning

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