“Charting Our Course”
January 2025
“Charting Our Course”
“11For 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. 12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV
Welcome to 2025! As we begin a new year I want to introduce our new sermon series “Charting Our Course.” January is a good time to evaluate where we are and “map out” where we’re headed. It’s a time to reflect on the past and project into the future.
And because of that, it can be a time where we set too many goals. We all want to be healthier, more organized, and/or more productive this year. And we also want to cut back on our commitments and focus more on the things that are most important. That’s a pretty long list!
In our sermon series we’re going to look at different biblical characters and see how God helped them “chart their course” and glean from their example.
As we start this journey, I thought about the passage above. It is one of the most often quoted scriptures. We love Jeremiah 29:11. It’s an upbeat verse that gives us hope for the next season. But we often overlook the vital instruction that verses 12-13 have for us. Go back and reread them.
These verses set an important guardrail against misreading 29:11. Living into the plans that God has for us requires living in proximity to God. It requires prayer, and it requires seeking God with “all your heart.” That’s a far cry from understanding 29:11 as “God has promised to give us everything we want and make everything work out perfectly in our lives.”
Charting our course requires all these same things. We need to stay close to God. We need to be diligent in prayer. And we need to be faithful followers of God, seeking him with all that we are.
Rather than getting overwhelmed with all that we want to accomplish in this new year, I want to encourage all of us to chart our course for 2025 with these things in mind. And never forget that God is with you every step along the way.
In Christ,
Pastor Thomas
“11For 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. 12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV
Welcome to 2025! As we begin a new year I want to introduce our new sermon series “Charting Our Course.” January is a good time to evaluate where we are and “map out” where we’re headed. It’s a time to reflect on the past and project into the future.
And because of that, it can be a time where we set too many goals. We all want to be healthier, more organized, and/or more productive this year. And we also want to cut back on our commitments and focus more on the things that are most important. That’s a pretty long list!
In our sermon series we’re going to look at different biblical characters and see how God helped them “chart their course” and glean from their example.
As we start this journey, I thought about the passage above. It is one of the most often quoted scriptures. We love Jeremiah 29:11. It’s an upbeat verse that gives us hope for the next season. But we often overlook the vital instruction that verses 12-13 have for us. Go back and reread them.
These verses set an important guardrail against misreading 29:11. Living into the plans that God has for us requires living in proximity to God. It requires prayer, and it requires seeking God with “all your heart.” That’s a far cry from understanding 29:11 as “God has promised to give us everything we want and make everything work out perfectly in our lives.”
Charting our course requires all these same things. We need to stay close to God. We need to be diligent in prayer. And we need to be faithful followers of God, seeking him with all that we are.
Rather than getting overwhelmed with all that we want to accomplish in this new year, I want to encourage all of us to chart our course for 2025 with these things in mind. And never forget that God is with you every step along the way.
In Christ,
Pastor Thomas
