{Withness} 2025 Word

Day 2. 2025.
Sometimes I think I have to figure out what’s next for my life in order to make it the best most meaningful life, and also the exact method for how to pull it off. It’s a dangerous, slippery slope riddled with anxious ‘what if’s’. How about you? Do you ever find yourself here?

I think we all feel this on some level. A new year means it’s time to turn the page. 2024 is wrapped up with a bow, and now we’re starting fresh with new things, new thoughts, new plans, and new motivation.

Honestly, I think that is all good. It tells us something about God and how we were created. He made us in His image, which is whole and pure and without want. It’s the call of Eden still echoing with a longing for perfection that we feel often, but possibly with greater intensity at the beginning of a new chapter.

We want wholeness and goodness. But in this corrupted creation we are taunted by anxious thoughts and striving to figure out the path all by our lonesome. That’s not God’s way. Nor is it His desire.

“This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.”

Genesis 6:9-16

Look at Noah. He lived righteously with his family in a perverse world. He was simply living his life upstream from culture. Every day he woke up, did his job, and took care of his family. Noah’s wife birthed three sons. They worked hard with their hands, and worshipped their creator in their hearts. His three sons each married in the example of their parents.

This family stood out to God. And so, one day, God approached Noah with a plan. God made a decision. He was going to create a flood and wipe out the most of creation including people and animals. But God also decided to save a remnant of His creation.

God chose Noah. He gave His plan to Noah. He instructed Noah. And God provided everything Noah needed to complete his task. God did it all, and Noah said yes. Noah complied with God, and in turn, received the honor and favor inherent in obeying God in surrender to His authority.

In 2025, I pray for the awareness and ability to see God with me in every aspect of every day life. I don’t want to miss His {withness} for He is Immanuel, God with us.

How do you want to experience ‘God with you’ this year? What difference would it make in your life if you were daily aware of God with you? May you experience more and more of His {withness}.

Perhaps, if you haven’t read Genesis 4-7 in a while (or ever), today is a good time to look it up and read all the words. I pray for you the desire to know God in relationship, and hunger to be fed by His living words. I pray for you to be rooted and grounded in His love and faithfulness. And I pray for you to experience God’s real presence {His withness} today. I pray these blessings over you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Eyes on Jesus and Shine,

Lisa