Have a Good Year!
A new year is here and we all can’t help but hope 2025 is a good one. The specifics of what constitutes a good year may be different for each of us, but the general elements are universal: good health, stable income (preferably a little higher than it is now), happy relationships, well-running vehicles, minimal home repairs, and a low-stress work life.
There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting these things. However, is it possible that this list above is hoping for too little? Is it possible that there is more to a good year than a relatively trouble-free 12-months? Let’s look at how Scripture informs our view of what is good.
The scope of his goodness reaches everyone and he shows his goodness through compassion on his creation.
His goodness can permeate our hearts in such powerful ways it’s like we’re taking a bite of the best thing ever.
The good we do is an overflow of the good God has done for us. We do good not to earn anything from him, but because he has already given us all we need to live for him.
Life is hard and full of hardship. We experience unimaginably painful things that bring ongoing grief. At the same time, God uses those things to bring about something in us that he calls good. That doesn’t mean the trials are good. But it does mean the fruit of the trial - what he works in the difficult circumstance - is good.
So maybe a more biblically informed view of what a good 2025 looks like is:
Let’s have a good year by not putting our expectations in good circumstances, but in a good God!
A new year is here and we all can’t help but hope 2025 is a good one. The specifics of what constitutes a good year may be different for each of us, but the general elements are universal: good health, stable income (preferably a little higher than it is now), happy relationships, well-running vehicles, minimal home repairs, and a low-stress work life.
There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting these things. However, is it possible that this list above is hoping for too little? Is it possible that there is more to a good year than a relatively trouble-free 12-months? Let’s look at how Scripture informs our view of what is good.
- The Bible tells us that God himself is the very essence of goodness.
The scope of his goodness reaches everyone and he shows his goodness through compassion on his creation.
- The goodness of the Lord is something we can experience through the Spirit.
His goodness can permeate our hearts in such powerful ways it’s like we’re taking a bite of the best thing ever.
- We are created by God in Christ to do good.
The good we do is an overflow of the good God has done for us. We do good not to earn anything from him, but because he has already given us all we need to live for him.
- Even when bad things happen, God has our good in mind and is working for it.
Life is hard and full of hardship. We experience unimaginably painful things that bring ongoing grief. At the same time, God uses those things to bring about something in us that he calls good. That doesn’t mean the trials are good. But it does mean the fruit of the trial - what he works in the difficult circumstance - is good.
So maybe a more biblically informed view of what a good 2025 looks like is:
- To be near to God.
- To work from the overflow of the goodness God has made in us.
- To know when hardship comes, the enemy means it for evil, but God will work it for good.
Let’s have a good year by not putting our expectations in good circumstances, but in a good God!