For some the snow this week has brought a welcomed change of pace. Sleds were summoned from deep storage, snow forts were prepared, and snowmen slowly emerged in front yards. Others see the snow and feel more like how C.S. Lewis described Narnia when ruled by the White Witch, “she can turn people into stone and do all kinds of horrible things. And she has made a magic so that it is always winter in Narnia—always winter, but it never gets to Christmas.”
No matter your feelings about winter weather, one thing is the same, we had no control over it. We all had our plans for the last few days. Church was scheduled for Sunday, Monday was supposed to be the start of school, AWANAs, students, and D-Groups were all supposed to start Wednesday. I’m sure you had your plans as well for family and work, and yet when winter weather shows up, things necessarily must change. Our plans must submit to the dictates of the weather, and, ultimately, we must humble ourselves to this reality that we are not in control of something as normal as the weather. Most of our days have fairly predictable weather, so we can be lulled into thinking we are the ones in control of our schedules. And of course, God calls us to be wise, to make plans, to think ahead, to not be foolish, and yet we must do all of this with the understanding that we are not the ones in control.
That’s why our memory verse for January is 1 Peter 5:6-7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” Tonight, since our normal Wednesday night activities are cancelled, it would be a great time to work on memorizing these verses. If you live with others, you can work on it together. Set a timer for 15 minutes and do what you can. Or choose one of these creative ways to memorize Scripture and give it a try. Let me know if one worked for your family.
We’re memorizing these verses to start 2025 because it creates an essential mindset for us to see God do His fullest work in our lives this year. The more we humble ourselves under His mighty hand and submit to His Word, the more likely we will experience the fullness of what He has for us in the coming year. The world rejects God’s rule and refuses to submit to Him or humble themselves under the authority of His Word, and they suffer for it. Just this morning I read Psalm 7 from our Bible reading plan for 2025, where it says:
Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.
His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.
So use any extra time you have in your schedule to catch up your Bible reading or work ahead, and to memorize our monthly verse, so that when we come back together we will already be in the mindset to fully engage in worship. We don’t know what the next few days hold (more snow predicted still!) but one thing is for sure, we will trust that God is at work even as our lives have to adjust along the way. (We will post on social media and send emails if any changes need to be made to this weekend).
I’m praying that God gives you a deeper sense of His purpose for you in 2025 through the reading and memorizing of His word this week!
Photo by Annie Nyle on Unsplash