Leaning and Trusting in 2025
It’s January and everywhere you turn people are talking about goals, dreams, and desires to make their 2025 count. In a recent podcast, former Dave Ramsey personality, Christy Wright asked the question, “What to do when your goals aren’t clear” (Spotify users can listen here). As Christy explained some of her twists and turns in the last two years since God told her to leave a successful career working for Dave Ramsey, I couldn’t help but relate a little. Christy shared that her journey has felt like a walk through the wilderness, relying on God to give her direction.
Last year, my “big sister”, Shelly, posted on her social media account something God had put in her spirit a few days before 2024 began. In that post, she asked the question, “What’s your more in ‘24?”. My first gut reaction and how I answered was, “to ride my bicycle more in 2024”. I rode my bike a whopping, zero times in 2024. However, after posting my answer, God started dealing with me.
I remember a particular service a few years ago when God used my pastor to speak this word to me, “I don’t want your questions, I want your trust.” Too often I’m guilty of wanting to understand before I commit, and many times God wants us to commit and/or obey before He gives us the understanding. I remember also, having a conversation with my associate pastor’s wife, Lisa, in 2023 about Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths. (NKJV)
My theme became “Lean more in ‘24”, but as 2024 has become 2025, I found myself saying to God, “Okay, last year was lean more, What’s next for 2025?”. I feel like He is leading me to build on top of leaning on Him by leaning into my church family and the relationships he has surrounded me with, but I have no clue how He wants me to walk that out. My “big sister”, Shelly, says that the biggest thing anyone can do is pray for their friends and church family. As an encourager, it can be hard to be told to just pray, because I like those times of more intimate fellowship with my church family.
But as January has pressed forward and February looms, I have continued to think on what God wants from me in 2025. Then a week and a half ago on a Monday night our church met to have prayer; at the end of the meeting, God led my pastor to call for people who had felt heavy and burdened. I had several minutes earlier been telling him about a situation in my life where I had felt the weight, then joy, but now we were back to the weight again, and I just wanted the joy. The way my pastor made the call, I almost didn’t feel like I related.
As people responded to the call and lined up to be prayed for, I turned and joined them at the last minute. After my friend (and the man I often refer to as my mentor), Frank, prayed with me, the tears just came. My pastor came and started praying with me as well, but God had given him a word to speak to me. There were multiple components to this word, but the big takeaway was this word from God mirrored the message my pastor had given me a few years ago. God again wanted me to stop questioning Him and simply trust Him.
Now here I am less than a week and a half from this and everywhere I turn, it seems like everyone is talking about Proverbs 3:5. I found myself asking, “Where am I questioning God and not giving Him my trust?” I have had come to the realization that God isn’t angry with my questions, He loves them, but sometimes my actions do not show that I trust Him. Using the example my pastor gave this past Sunday, in a marriage relationship, when a week goes by and a husband and wife get busy and fail to connect, or they have an argument, they don’t have to run to each other and ask, “Are we still married?”, because they made a covenant with each other. Married couples in a healthy relationship understand that sometimes their spouse may do something that is out of character for them or handling a situation in an unusual way, but when trust has been built into the relationship, they understand that their spouse is just going through something hard, but their marriage is fine.
God loves me, and even when He isn’t living up to my expectations in the timeframe that I would hope for, I still must lean into the fact that His ways are not mine, and His timeframe is larger than mine. Every time I allow myself to get frustrated with His plan and His timing, instead of submitting to it; I have only allowed my heart to ache.
As my pastor said on that Monday night, there are some weights that God places in our lives and they are there for us to carry and do weightlifting with. We often want to stand on the platform and hold the medal, but every gold, silver, and bronze medalist had to endure difficult training to achieve the joy of wearing that medal. In 2025, I must continue to focus on trusting Him and learn what that looks like for my life.