So, how do you think you did in doing the work of our Lord in 2024, or being a good Christian,
or being a good or better person, or improving your relationship with God? It’s a question, a
thought, I ask myself. Quite honestly, I’m glad I don’t get a grade that will affect my future, or
does it?
Some of you have done great things in 2024, food pantry, church maintenance, church finances,
worship services, Empower program, just caring for others, and a host of other things that
aren’t even connected with our church. You’re awesome!
Well, it’s now 2025. Two weeks ago Edgar told us to go back to the beginning if we’re
struggling. Last week Elizabeth said we are loved and redeemed and asked us to think about
who we are in our relationship to God. Well, today I’m asking what are we gonna do in 2025 to
be better people, better Christians, improve our relationship with God?
I have some suggestions, if you didn’t surmise that already. I plagiarized some of these from
others, and if you want to see my bibliography, I’ll send it to you.
Do Healthy Things: Of course, everyone says eat better, and get off the couch and do more
exercise. I embody that sentiment. In addition, how about our mental, emotional, and spiritual
health? One suggestion is less social media. Maybe just talk to other people more. I know,
right? What a novel idea! How about reading the bible more? Maybe just thinking about
others and making the world a better place.
Manage Your Finances Better: Yeah, that seems like it’s unusual to think about in this context.
If you Google bible verses about managing your money, you might be surprised how many you
find. God wants us to be smart with our money and content with what we have. But, He wants
us to do what we can with what we have to help those less fortunate. That’s clear, right?
Learn more about God’s Word: You can read the bible yourself and you can find lots of help
online to help understand scripture you might find challenging. But, studying the bible with
others helps me understand it easier, and gets many other viewpoints to hear about it. We
have two bible studies that I know of that are through the church. But, there are many others
that are groups of people who just share in studying God’s word. Feel free to reach out to me,
or Candy, or anyone at OMHPC, or start your own, or ask others. But, that’s been a rewarding
pursuit for me.
Do something for others: What skills or gifts do we have? How can we put them in use to help
others? We have a group of our flock headed to North Carolina in April to help people whose
homes were damaged or destroyed by the hurricanes last year. They are already thinking
about another mission trip to southern California next year. We have many small groups
through the church that need help, or maybe need restarting and reorganizing. What interests
do we each have? What about outside the church like Lions clubs, literacy groups, community
organizations, and whatever you can think of? How about just reaching out to other people to
see how they are? Did you know we have someone at the church sends cards to people? Some
people at the church call others regularly to offer their hope, support, listening ear, comfort,
and just some personal contact? What is it that we can do? I know, preaching to the choir
right? Oh yeah, do you have musical gifts you could share?
Prayer: Are we saying our prayers every day? Do we have a personal prayer list that we go
through? Many years ago Jeff Farley had an prayer app on his phone, I think. As I remember,
the app rotated the people that you needed to pray for so that all of them were up in your face
in turn so you didn’t forget them. Gerda talked about how to pray recently. But, you don’t
really need instruction, do you? You can just talk to God yourself, but maybe hearing from
others helps us. So, like the joys and concerns we just heard, do we have our own list? This is
one of those things that is completely up to us. It is likely we were taught to pray like “God
bless Mommy and Daddy, etc. But do we now continue that for anyone that we know needs
God's help?
Be grateful! We have all heard these stats like if you have a roof over your head, and food to
eat every day, you’re better off than some huge percentage of the rest of the world. Many of
us have known of someone who kept a gratitude journal. Carolee Union had one and the story
I remember is that the more she used it, the more she realized she had to be thankful for. We
need to be thankful for all that we have, no matter what that is, health, food to eat, a warm
place to live, people in our lives. When we ask God for help, it is also right to thank Him for all
he has done and for all we have.
When our daughter Christina went to college at St. Rose, a nun told this story during the
orientation.
Thousands of starfish had washed up on a beach. A person was going down the beach picking
up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. After a while, another person
came up to the first and said why are you doing this? Do you see how many there are washed
up here? You can’t make a difference here. But the first person picked up another starfish and
through it back into the ocean. Then said, it made a world of difference to that starfish and all
the others I was able to throw back.
So, we can make a difference in the lives of everyone we touch. You just never know...
Let us pray…