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

Friday... Yes, we need them. We really do

Psalm 8:3-4 (NLT), "When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers - the moon and the stars you set in place - what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?" Friday... Yes, we need them. We really do. No, not the fact that I can go out my front door and look out at night at the marvels of the sky. I can do that and it is amazing and it takes my breath away each time I see it. Yes, that is a fact but the reality of who did that and the wisdom and the faith that I have to believe that and to marvel that the one who did that cares about me makes such a difference in how I live my life. Yes, God really does. That is so wonderful for us to believe. And that is why faith and wisdom are so important. Now whatever belief you have at how that marvel happened must also be believed through faith. And the sad thing to me is that more and more people have been taught that there is no God and therefore he did not have a h...

Wednesday... Our unless can turn into useless.

Wednesday... Our unless can turn into useless. It really can. I have found that unless I give the correct email of my wife then I can't get what I wanted. I put an extra i in her email and I have been working for 5 days to get it changed. Unless has been useless. The writer of Psalm 94 uses this word and shows how important it is. Verses 17-19 (NLT) says, "Unless the Lord had helped me, I would have soon settled in the silence of the grave. I cried out, 'I'm slipping!' but your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer." "Unless the Lord had helped me." So many people go on and on and on striving to live their life on their own but they keep slipping and doubting and living without hope and cheer. Yes the Lord has such unfailing love for us, he really does but unless we have a relationship with him and we turn to him and ask him for help then the unless turns in to useless because h...

Monday... Three ifs and two thens. They go together!

Monday... Three ifs and two thens. They go together! They really do. And this is what caught my attention this morning as I was reading Proverbs 2. Verse 1 (NRSVUE) says, "My child, if you accept my words and treasure my commands within you." Verse 3 (NIV), "Indeed i f you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, Verse 4, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, Verse 5, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." And verses 9-11, " Then you will understand what is right and just and fair - every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you." There will always be some effort we must do, some ifs for the thens to be realized in our lives. So many of us want to understand without the ifs. But the thens are so worth, so very worth the effort. Verses 5-6 in the Ampli...

Todays Beginning

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