What happened to 2024? Here we are on the last day of the year and are looking forward to seeing what great things our Lord will do with us and with the church in the new year. As your pastor, there are three means of grace that I would ask each of you to consider worthy to zealously pursue in 2025.
The first is corporate worship. Please pursue individual and family worship as well. But corporate worship is the pinnacle of our week; indeed, the pinnacle of our Christian lives here on this earth. There is no more important time or event of the week than our assemblies on the Lord’s Day. It is during these times that we, as the body of Christ, worship and serve the Living God in a unique way. It is this means of grace which is so critical to our spiritual well-being, that the prophet Isaiah wrote: “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:13-14; ESV).
The second is bible reading. This second means of grace is God’s way of revealing Himself through His Son (the Word) on a daily basis. As our Lord Jesus Christ prays to His Father, He includes this truth, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3; ESV). How can you know God and His Son if you are not reading the very book in which He is revealed; the very book in which the Living God speaks to you? Bible reading is usually the first thing that tends to drop off as the year goes on. We get busy and rationalize that other events, tasks in our lives are more important – more time sensitive, and the time for Bible reading becomes absorbed by those “more important” tasks. This is exactly what Satan wants you to think. This is his plan. Start tomorrow with a set time, and a set schedule. Here is the link to Ligoners list of Bible reading plans (in blue): https://www.ligonier.org/posts/bible-reading-plans.
The third is prayer. We must be a praying people. Remember what we read in the Upper Room Discourse: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7; ESV). Do we really believe that statement uttered by Jesus? I think that if we really believe this truth that we will become a praying people. Certainly pray in your prayer closets. Pray with your families. And come and pray with the congregation. We pray as the body of Christ nearly every Wednesday night. It is a joy, and it is necessary for our church and for our spiritual well-being to join together as the people of God and seek His face together; joining our hearts and pouring them out together in the hearing of God Almighty.
May the Lord bless our individual and joint pursuit of these three means of grace in the new year.
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