God Reveals In 2024
It is the beginning of a new year. Does that excite you or scare you? It does a little bit of both to me if I am completely honest. As I begin the first week of January 2024, I feel a little lost in my thoughts. My kids were not excited about going back to school, my husband felt some anxiety as he headed off to work this morning feeling the pressures of a new role, and I sat at my computer with my Bible laid out in front of me wondering where and how to begin my writing journey for 2024. I believe the question weighing heavy on our hearts this morning is, “Where is God leading us in this new year and how is He going to make the way?”
In the book of Isaiah, God’s people were struggling in a very bad way. They were once again oppressed and had no idea how their lives would end up. They wanted a fresh start, a new beginning. They wanted out of enslavement and free to live as they desired. They turned to God in desperate cries for help but did not fully trust in the plan He had for them. Their cries wanted a quick fix not a lasting plan that would affect not only them but all generations to come.
God was planning a new exodus for His people, and He shared this news with Isaiah so that he could bring hope to the people. He told them to not dwell on the past but to look ahead at what God was doing and going to do. God says in Isaiah 43:18-19, “See what I am doing? Do you not recognize that I’m working in your lives? I am making a way through your despair and confusion. It is me and I have it all under control.” God was wanting His people to rely on Him and His ways, not their own. He wanted them to see the great things He was doing and planning to do. He wanted to give them hope and a future. This hope and future He was bringing was Jesus, the Messiah. He was sending His Son to save the world. Wow, God definitely had a plan and was making a way. He was clearing paths and had every detail planned out.
What do you feel like is impossible in 2024? In what ways do you doubt that God can make the impossible, possible?
My list of what I think is impossible is short, but it is mighty. I spent the majority of 2023 asking God for something in particular and I never saw it flourish and never truly got a definite answer about it. I don’t have high hopes that it will go anywhere in 2024. I sound just like the Israelites. I cry out to God in desperation, but I do not truly believe that He is making a way through my wilderness. Have you ever felt that way? Maybe you feel that way today. This is the first thing that needs to change in 2024. We need our hearts to change to a place of trust. Trusting in God’s plan instead of ours and trusting that no matter what our side of the world looks like, He is making a way.
We may struggle and play tug of war with God when it comes to having our way, but when we relinquish control over our situations and allow Him to work through them, we can clearly see the work He is doing. Start 2024 by simply offering a prayer to God of thankfulness for what He is doing in your life. Then ask for direction and be specific with this one. In what ways do you need directing and how does your heart need to be changed so that you can accept His direction? When Jesus was ministering to the Israelites some had moldable hearts that accepted His way of teaching and Him and others had hard hearts that could only reject Him and His ways. We want our hearts to be moldable. We want to be able to adjust to God’s ways in 2024 instead of having hard hearts and only wanting our ways.
This month, we will spend time focusing on how we prepare ourselves to accept God’s ways and how He is the Way Maker. He is doing big things in each of our lives. Are we beginning our new year excited with anticipation of what He is doing or are we being forced into the new year full of fear of what we will not accomplish? Everything we do is because of Jesus and through Him. We ended the advent season looking at all the hope, peace, joy, and love that Jesus brought to the world. Now we can go into the new year full of those things and knowing that we cannot do anything without Him. He is our strength in the new year, and He can make all things possible!
“You make known to me the path of life; you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Psalms 16:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
“There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.” Proverbs 23:18
Digging Deeper:
What gives you anxiety as you enter into 2024?
How are you trusting in God with this circumstance?
In what area of your life does your heart need to change towards God’s ways?