It’s a new year. A new year encourages us to look at the past and focus on the future.  Each new year encourages goal setting, habit forming tips, positivity… all good things, but can actually create stress from the lofty thoughts that come to mind.  

I’ve been ruminating on where and what God wants me to do in 2025 and to be honest, nothing specific has come to my mind, except “reflect and remember”. God has continually put those words in my mind for days on end now… and I keep asking myself “what does that mean?”.  I believe God is reminding me that in this next year, I need to remember and reflect on what He’s already done in my life and what he has planned for me in the future.  God wants us to continually remember and reflect because when we take our eyes off of Jesus, we tend to forget what he’s already done for us.  We tend to get wrapped in the present, fixated on the problems, anxious towards the future, questioning how, what, when? It’s when you remember and reflect,  you are reminded that God is a promise keeper, a way maker, a trusted Father.  When we remember and reflect, it forces us to recall the sovereignty of God and how He is just as present now as he was in the past.  God is immutable; he does not change.  The same God who parted the Red Sea is the same God who brought you out of that depression.  The same God who poured water from the rock is the same God who took you out of your financial crisis.  The same God who walked on water is the same God who cured that sickness.  God still does what He did in our past, so we are to reflect and remember what He’s already done, to ensure we don’t forget who will make a way when we face trials in the here and now.  As we reflect and remember what God has already done for us in our life, it reminds us that God remembers us too. Your relationship with God is meant to be reciprocated, so we reflect and remember with Him.  

That is exactly what I’m doing here.  I once heard pastor and author, Levi Lusko say that he started writing out of the “overflow of his heart” and that’s exactly what God’s done for me. As I reflect on God’s goodness, I can’t help but write from the overflow of my heart.  Jesus tells us that from the overflow of our heart, the mouth speaks.  The overflow of my heart continues to be poured out onto paper and into words through reading His word.  As I continue to pursue God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, the overflow is poured out onto paper. 

In entering 2025, I want to encourage you to look at the overflow of your heart.  Reflect and remember where you’ve been, but look at where you want 2025 and beyond to take you.  Remember that “Your eye is the lamp of your body.  When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light.” Luke 11:34 Whatever we are intaking outwardly is affecting us inwardly.  Whatever we’re looking at and spending time with affects the overflow of our hearts.  What is it that you want to be poured out of you?  Wisdom? Knowledge? The latest pop culture trend? The biggest political scandal? The best gossip in the neighborhood?  You have a choice to be a well of knowledge or a well of worldly information.  Out of the overflow of your heart, the mouth speaks.  So what’s coming in through your eyes, dwelling within your heart and being poured out through your mouth?  2025 can be a year of change or a year of continuity. 

I’m continually being challenged by God to dive deeper into His word. Don’t just settle for what someone else says about God, but pursue him with everything I have through His word.  As you reflect on this next year, remember what A.W. Tozer said in his profound book, The Pursuit of God, “You can see God from anywhere if your mind is set to love and obey Him… When the habit of inwardly gazing Godward become fixed within us we shall be ushered onto a new level of spiritual life more in keeping with the promises of God and the mood of the New Testament. The Triune God will be our dwelling place even while our feet walk the low road of simple duty here among men.  We will have found life’s Summum Bonum (a Latin expression meaning the highest or ultimate good) indeed”.

So let us fix our gaze and on Jesus, to find life’s ultimate good and dwell in that.