Choices for 2025

Choices for 2025

There are ways to carry the Christmas Spirit into the New Year and beyond that will bring better living in 2025.  The New Year is not just a time for resolutions, but for continuing with choices that lead us closer to our best selves.

The promise of Christmas was first noted in Genesis.  God our creator, was coming to be with us.  Then, the long story unfolds about the nature of the human heart which had become separated from God.  However, reconciliation with God was made possible if we chose to respond.  

In 2025 we could choose some humility more often.  Christmas commemorates the birth of Christ, who humbly came to earth as a baby.  Creator God humbled himself to temporarily live among His creation, with its sickness, suffering, and sin.

What would choosing that kind of humility in our lives look like?  It could mean offering to help a colleague with a project, even if it's not your responsibility.  Sincere prayer is not just a ritual but a transformative practice that changes the one who prays.  Take time to pray, "Father, where are the needs?  Have I been making excuses for avoiding the needy I see around me?”

Humankind has been self-centred and rebellious, not humbly recognizing our actual position in life before God.  In 2025, we can choose to walk more frequently on the path of humility.

While becoming a little more humble, we could also practice some generosity.  We could be generous with time and money.  We could hang out with those who need a friend or provide transportation to someone who needs it.  We could join a committee dedicated to supporting refugees or give money to your church that is designated for a community food program.

Allow yourself to get out of your comfort zone.  Following the Lord will bring inner joy when you realize generosity has an impact on people.

In the new year, we could also practice some peace.  God’s peace is not the cessation of strife or overcoming the lack of social acceptance.  It's a deep, inner calm that comes from trusting in God's promises.  The people who enjoy God's peace are those who, in everything by prayer, let their requests be made known to God.  Christians experience the Lord’s peace when they walk in faith.  They turn to God in good and bad times to experience His closeness.

In 2025, we could also practice more patience.  We need patience to deal with unfulfilled longings and stress.  Passion is a powerful desire, and these yearnings frustrate us to the point of giving up or lashing out.  When we want something badly, that longing can become heavy.  But remember, the reward of patience is hope and encouragement.

Seek to hear from God, then be quiet and learn to hear His voice.  The Lord does not always give us what we desire.  Instead, He might provide us with something we never thought to ask for.  Patience and trust go together.

So, we could become a little more humble on occasion, more generous and patient, and live more peacefully with ourselves and others, but can we do it faithfully?  It is good to practice faithfulness.

As the Christmas celebrations end and decorations are put away, we might struggle to believe that God is faithful, so we can specifically choose to be faithful to Him in our lives.

A lifetime of steadfast faith doesn't happen overnight.  It's built upon years of many days of ordinary perseverance.  Faith is a steadiness, a daily belief that God is good, He is real, He is for you, and we do not need all the answers.  God is trustworthy with our prayers, and He is there for a relationship.

We can trust God in life's big decisions and in the dull minutes (laundry, traffic, cleaning the yard, or paying bills).  We can trust God for energy, discernment, patience, and generosity of spirit.

We can trust God to faithfully show us mercy when we lack patience or become self-centered.  We can live forward by actively replacing the bad in our minds with good things and trusting and declaring God’s goodness, an act of faith.

When we start to do these things, we discover a kinder side within ourselves.  We practice kindness.

Christians often do kind things.  They express their love for Jesus by encouraging sad people and trying to lift broken spirits.  Even many non-Christians can behave kindly for a few weeks of the year and are likelier to do so when Christmastime is in the air.

Kindness observes sadness and despair, remembering in the months after Christmas that those problems don’t go away when the tree and decorations come down. Genuine kindness asks God to reveal needy and broken hearts.  God says, "Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these things, I delight, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 9:24).

Similar to generosity, kindness can sometimes feel sacrificial.  It is easy to be kind to loved ones but not to adversaries.  We remember that in His kindness, Jesus was not merely “nice.”  Sometimes, our kindness will mean lovingly speaking the truth, planting a seed of wisdom that comes to fruition later.

When someone rejects God and His standards, yet mistakenly thinks philanthropy will open the gates of heaven, it may be kind to explain that no amount of donations will buy a person’s redemption or way into heaven.  Genuine, practical kindness comes from God through you.

Beyond the aforementioned positive attributes, we can choose to be more thankful in life and find ways to practice joy.  The joy of practicing joy is in the upliftment and optimism it brings to our lives.  It's a powerful tool that can transform even the most challenging situations into opportunities for growth and learning.

Joy may come easily when things seem good.  But the more profound joy of life can remain deep within even when things seem empty or incomplete.  Joy arises from discipline and sacrifice, and it is available even to the hurting and the poor, the hungry and the lonely.  “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can approach life's most difficult circumstances with a sense of inner joy.  When we are spiritually impoverished, when we grieve with our sins, and when we are weak, Christ can come close.  The joy that comes from God is our strength.  Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

For life in 2025, there is a formula:

The Spirit of God in one’s life yields fruit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, tolerance, and self-control—and no shame exists against any of them.  Those who belong to Jesus Christ have rejected their old natural desires with all that was lusted for.  If the Spirit of God inspires our lives, we can live to the fullest by the Spirit of God’s motivation.

The acts of the flesh (sins) are evident in this world: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, lies, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things, there is no law or social prohibition.  Galatians 5:19-23

In 2025, we can choose to be more humble, generous, peaceful, patient, faithful, kind, and thankfully joyful.  Will you?