WORDS OF HOPE AND ENCOURAGEMENT FOR 2025

And God is able to make all grace abound to

you, so that in all things, at all times, having

all that you need, you will abound in every

good work. -- 2 Corinthians 4:8, BSB

Although there was much to be grateful for, 2024 (from my perspective) did not end on a very good note. It was actually quite bewildering.

As I tried to make sense of it all, Lisa Anne Tindal's words in her blog post, The Driver, spoke to my heart. They were so timely. Over and over they played in my mind as I stood at the gate leading to 2025, preparing to board a train headed for an unknown destination: "God is driving the train. Only He knows where it will go. We are just riding."

Unlike other years, there were no expectations, no resolutions, no plans. Just an openness to whatever God has in store. Thy will, not mine be done. 

I may not know where this ride will take me or what this journey into the new year will bring, but I choose to sit back and relax, and enjoy the ride. I choose to put all my hope and trust in Him to guide and uphold me along the way, knowing that He is in control and sees the whole picture, which I do not.

Two reassuring messages with very similar themes reinforced the wisdom of this choice.

The first was in yesterday's Our Daily Bread's New Year's Eve message about the hand of God. It started out with the following lines from Minnie Louise Haskins poem, God Knows:   

 

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

The second was from today's Streams in the Desert, about trusting God when we cannot see what loss, sorrow, or trials are accomplishing. These are the times that drive us to His throne of grace where "the Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way."