Happy New Year! A few years ago USA Today took a survey of those who made resolutions before the beginning of the previous year. Only 32% kept them. The most popular one (you know it) was losing weight. But go down the list and you find that 5% listed praying more and being closer to God.
Go figure.
I want to give you a prayer for 2025. It is but two lines, with the first part coming from Psalms 31–“I trust you, O Lord, my times are in your hands. The second line is from a little known Christian, Jean-Pierre deCaussade, who lived in the 1700’s. It goes like this—“Help me, O Lord, to give myself to the duty of the present moment.”
Why these lines? Because my guess is that sometime in this coming year it will find you anxious about something you are facing, whether real or imagined. And to know that you are not facing it alone, but in the presence of ONE greater than you, and to allow that to be enough for the day you are in, can make all the difference.
There are two prayers I pray every day. One is—“Lord, be with me, for without you I shall surely fail.” The other—“In my life, Lord, be glorified.” Prayers that place God at the center of my life and all I’m experiencing.
I am looking forward to a new year with Crabtree Valley Baptist Church. Let us all do our part—attendance, giving, inviting, expecting…but most of all may we be people of prayer expecting great things of God,expecting great things of God, this God who goes before us in the year of our Lord 2025.
Brave Journey, Bill
