Placing Our Plans in God's Hands This Year

Every breath that we draw, we do so by the grace of God. Every activity that we're able to engage in, every dollar that we're able to spend, all of these gifts are gifts to us by the hand of God. And we don't know what God has in store for each of us, for any of us. Later today, tomorrow, through the rest of 2026 or beyond. We don't know. Does that mean we shouldn't plan? Of course not. But we should plan putting God and his will at the center of those plans. [00:51:21] (47 seconds)  #PlanWithGod

We should plan by saying as the church does, Lord, what would you have us do? What should be our focus in this new year? How should we spend our resources, our time, our efforts, our money? How should our volunteers be serving within the church, beyond the church? What would you have us do? And we place ourselves into God's hands. We place the future into God's hands. We thank him for these blessings and these opportunities and for our sisters and brothers who are with us. [00:52:08] (35 seconds)  #SeekGodsWill

And we simply say, Lord, what shall we do? And we prayerfully listen and we prayerfully watch to see his his hand at work, to hear his voice, to to talk about that together, to discern what seems good and pleasing to him and we make our plans based on what we can discern together. [00:52:43] (33 seconds)  #PrayAndDiscern

The apostle Paul had it in his mind that God wanted him to go to Spain to preach the gospel. I'm sure he had prayed about that and discerned that very hard. And to our knowledge, Paul never did get to Spain. But God may have been using that vision to prompt Paul to at least get to Rome or to do something else that undoubtedly was an even greater blessing than Paul could have imagined in wanting to go to Spain. [00:53:31] (31 seconds)  #DivineRedirection

The apostle Paul had it in his mind that God wanted him to go to Spain to preach the gospel. I'm sure he had prayed about that and discerned that very hard. And to our knowledge, Paul never did get to Spain. But God may have been using that vision to prompt Paul to at least get to Rome or to do something else that undoubtedly was an even greater blessing than Paul could have imagined in wanting to go to Spain. [00:53:31] (31 seconds)  #TrustTheDetour

We cannot comprehend the mind of God, the will of God. He reveals what that is to us as he wishes. And we love him and we trust him and we know that that he has a plan and a purpose for us which is good and holy and perfect and true and so we do our best to follow and place ourselves and our resources and opportunities and one another into his hands. [00:54:03] (34 seconds)  #TrustGodsPlan

2026, a new year. It will bring its own changes just as 2025 did. Some of us may not be here twelve months from now. There may be new people. Hopefully, there are all more and more new people that join our church family in 2026. But we will never be the same again. But we go onward and upward all to the praise and glory of God. [00:54:39] (34 seconds)  #OnwardAndUpward2026

It will bring its own changes just as 2025 did. Some of us may not be here twelve months from now. There may be new people. Hopefully, there are all more and more new people that join our church family in 2026. But we will never be the same again. But we go onward and upward all to the praise and glory of God. [00:54:41] (32 seconds)  #NewYearNewChurch