Month: December 2024

New year Continuing to hope!

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As I sit here in the waning hours of 2024 I find myself considering what the new year will bring. I hear the pop of fireworks going off and can see neighborhood houses lit up and filled with guests. In recent years with all that has been going on in our home I have often looked for a quiet place to sit and put down my thoughts about the year that is coming to a close.

This year I am more focused how 2025 will be different for our family. With all that has gone on in just the last few weeks everything has changed as to how my husband and I will be relating to our kids in the coming year. There is grief and hope all meshed together in what is going on. How our family looks has been changed forever. As I am watching the clock tick down another minute closer to the end of 2024 I am reminded that my hope should be in my heavenly family and not my earthly one.

Your year may be starting off much like mine as you hear people wishing you a Happy New Year, but it does not feel like it will be happy or new. The calendar may change, but you expect that not much else will. May I offer some encouragement to help bring you into the new year with more hope?

“But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!'” Galations 4:4-6 NASB

Remember who you are: You have been adopted into a heavenly family and are fully loved. You are covered by grace that came from Jesus’ sacrificial act on the cross. You have the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit living within you who prays for you when words are hard to come by. You have the right to cry out, “Abba Father!” and He hears you! Not only that, He sees our tears and He collects them in jars remembering our grief and working all things to His good purposes.

(Galatians 4:6, Ephesians 2:8, Romans 8:26, Psalm 56:9)

Knowing these things, I pray that you have hope in 2025. Specifically asking that the Lord will help you to pray for your children expectantly and boldly. That you would be filled with His joy and peace as you believe He is working in their lives. Trusting He will enable you to love them even when it is hard. That you would be filled with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Believing that the same Spirit will give you the strength to do the things that will point them ultimately to their Father in Heaven. Most of all, I pray that you will experience your Abba Father in new ways. That you will be given abundant reasons to be thankful. That you would experience the blessing of encouragement from other believers as you walk this journey with your wandering wayward children.

Hope for 2025! “Now may the God of Hope fill you with Joy and Peace in Believing, so that you will abound in Hope by the Power of the Holy Spirit” Romans 15:13 NASB

Here is a prayer from Every Moment Holy by McElvey that might help you as you work to pray expectantly in the coming year.

Momentary Liturgies for the Practicing the Presence of God: 

Upon Randomly Thinking of Another Person

God, as I hold _______
a moment in my thoughts,
I ask that you would hold them
eternally in yours,
remaining ever at work
in their heart and life,
even now directing their paths
toward your good ends.

Amen

From the book “Every Moment Holy” Volume 1 by Douglas Kaine Mckelvey; Rabbit Room Press, 2017

The light in the Dark

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In my last post I shared that this is the time of year where the short days and longer nights can often overwhelm me. This year, I have struggled even more in the midst of disappointment and grief.  Today Winter Solstice has arrived! This extremely short day that holds the least amount of sunlight for the year, at least in our hemisphere, is also the beginning of longer days and increasing light.

Light is deeply entwined in who we are as believers.  Let’s look at a few verses and take some time to celebrate the increasing light we not only experience physically but also spiritually.

Genesis 1:3–4
 “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.”

“Genesis 1:14-15 MSG “God spoke: Lights! Come out! Shine in Heaven’s sky! Separate Day from Night. Mark seasons and day and year, Lights in Heaven’s sky to give light to the Earth.” And there it was.”

The light was good and we stare at the sky and note the phases of the moon and the activities in the dark expanse that indicate the passage of time.  And those things remind us of Someone way bigger than ourselves that thought to create light first. 

Isaiah 61:1 NIV “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners”


John 8:12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

As Jesus stood before his hometown people and repeated Isaiah’s prophecy saying that He was the fulfillment those words the people who knew him from his youth embraced the darkness and took him to a place stone him. Jesus called himself the light of the world. God not only created light He is our light.


John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

1 John 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?”

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

Psalm 18:28. “For it is you who light my lamp;
the Lord my God lightens my darkness.”

Psalm 119:130 “The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple.”

God is our light in the darkness. He cannot be overcome. He is our salvation and the reason we do not have to be afraid. He my safe place and I do not need to fear. He is the Father of lights who will never change.  He gives me light in the midst of my darkness. He is the light that gives me understanding to what He has said. He is my light.

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Job 33:28 “He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,
and my life shall look upon the light.”

Psalm 37:6
 “He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.”

His light has made me chosen, a part of a royal priesthood, belonging to a holy nation, and His special possession.  His light has redeemed me from death and brought me into life!  His light has made me righteous and just. 

1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Ephesians 5:8 “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.”

Luke 8:16 “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.”

John 3:21 “But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Now I have His light in me and I need to be that light that shines in the darkness.  I am His light and I need to be sure that it shines where all can see.  My light shows others the works that God is doing through in and through me.  

I am thankful for the reminder that comes around each year as we celebrate the advent of Christ and the season of lights.  I am also thankful that the longest night of the year is the start of longer days ahead.  It is a reminder that things will get brighter and I have a reason to hope.

Merry Christmas Everyone!