2024 will soon become an old chapter, and a new blank page titled 2025 will be gifted unto us. How was your 2024? What are your expectations or thoughts on the upcoming year?
I have seen some people who plan their five years and move accordingly. To my surprise, some have achieved their five-year plans! Looking back, I am not someone with such five-year plans, and I trust God with the next step He shows. But in Bible God revealed his plan for more than 400 years to Abraham.
With our own experience in 2024, do we have any plans in our minds for 2025? It is totally healthy to look forward. It is totally healthy to look for new beginnings, new blessings in the new year. It is totally fine to trust God to receive better things, the promised blessings from God in the New Year.
Sometimes, some of us will be kept on the waiting benches while we have to cheer up our friends who move to the next steps. This happened to Joseph in the Bible. He saw the prisoners who were working for the king; he heard their dreams and interpreted them. He saw his interpretations come true. He saw one of the servants going back to the palace to serve the king. But Joseph was still in a hopeless situation, waiting for his dreams from God to be fulfilled. He was kept on a bench while he needed to smile when he saw others moving out of the prison gates. It must have felt long to bear the dream. He was not given the map to his life but was trusting God. He trusted God's directions. He waited and hopefully stayed to receive what was shown unto him.
Hey friend, like Joseph, if you are still waiting, still on the bench, may God's words purify you. That is what will happen in the waiting. Believe and keep the dream alive, as God's word says: "For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay."
Looking back, I thank God for this great year, a year of learning in my spiritual life. Be encouraged, my friend; God is molding us and preparing us to behold the new promises. God is preparing us to receive the miracles He has in store for us.
When I was listening to the speech of a godly man, he said God told him that His whole purpose for him is one soul. As much as we are preparing ourselves to receive, may God help us to prepare ourselves to finish our purpose for Him. May one soul experience Jesus through you. He knows our longings, wishes, and dreams. Do we care about His? May God reveal His longings to us. May we be active Christians who long to do something for the Lord.
This brings me to the story of William Carey, who translated the Bible into Indian languages. He had his own print shop, which contained twelve years of his translation works and dictionaries. When he lost his twelve years of work to a fire accident,He comforted himself with the following verse: "The loss is heavy, but as traveling a road the second time is usually done with greater ease and certainty than the first time, I trust the work will lose nothing of real value."
As a translator, I know translation is very difficult compared to writing. How great must the loss have been for William Carey? How cruel it is for someone to lose twelve years of hard work. Yet he renewed his strength in the Lord and moved forward. An article says that on his deathbed, he spoke of how unprofitable he had been.
How great men of God have lived their lives! They were not about gaining anything for themselves. May God give us such thirst for His work. May we ask God to use us more for His kingdom in the upcoming year. May we be of more use to Him.
Dear God, thank you for bringing us to the end of this year. Thank you for all the lessons you have taught us. May we look forward in hope to the upcoming year. May we trust the next steps you are showing us. May we be of good use for your work in the coming year. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
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