We close our 2024 and welcome the new year in just a few days. I don’t know about you, but 2024 was a year of loss, change, and new connections. Our forward-looking verse this time last year was – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5–6, NLT) We didn’t know then the specific ways trust would be tested and proven.
The phrase that keeps echoing in my heart for next year is from Isaiah: “This is the way. Walk in it.” Isaiah writes in full, “The Lord will give you meager bread and water during oppression, but your Teacher will not hide any longer. Your eyes will see your Teacher, and whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.” Then you will defile your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, and call them filth.” (Isaiah 30:20–22, CSB)
Taking the whole context, “This is the way. Walk in it,” has two threads. The first thread continues Proverbs: “Trust in the Lord…” While GPS and roadmaps can show us all the turns between now and our destination, life doesn’t seem to work that way. There are opportunities every day to turn in different directions. And every day, we must pause and listen to the voice of God to know whether to turn right, left, go straight ahead, or turn back. “Lord, Is this the way, or is there another?” should be our constant prayer.
The second thread is that by walking in the Way, we reveal and eradicate the idols in our lives. In some cases, those could be very real idols of metal or wood. But they can also be ideals, power, money, control, relationships, activities, hobbies, sleep, food, sex, and just about anything else that could stand between ourselves and God.
Paul wrote, “But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7–8, CSB) This verse doesn’t mean that we live a life separated from all but that we live a life with Christ being our highest priority. Every day on the Way, we should discover areas in our lives where Jesus is not yet fully Lord and turn them over to Him.
May the Lord bless you and keep you in 2025. May He show you the way to go, and may you, through His strength, walk in it. May you bless God and others this year as you follow Jesus.
- This is the Way - December 30, 2024
- Two Words that Change Everything - December 25, 2024
- Promises: A Child Shall be Born - December 23, 2024
