Hello Tomorrow!

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:2 (NLT)

What do you notice about this verse? What jumped out at you?:

On Sunday, Pastor spoke about going into 2025, leaving the past behind us. He mentioned so many things that made me really reflect on the ways that God has used my trials as something to celebrate. Like you, I have faced some really tough times. We all have them, and they all come at different levels of sadness, hurt, or even anger. But when you sit back and think about those trials, and how He used them to stretch you, and strengthen you, you can see His hand in all of it. 

Many of us think we want to go into this new year ready for change. We want to change our circumstances. But what if we changed our mindset towards our circumstances? God doesn't leave us to fight our Goliath on our own. He will give us the tools to slay him; we just need to be willing to trust Him in the process. Going into this season of prayer and fasting is really going to help us to be able to change our mindset, and use the trials as triumphs. 

As Pastor mentioned on Sunday, our mind is our responsibility. We need to dive into His Word and familiarize ourselves with it, so we can decipher the voice of the world and the voice of God. Being familiar with His Word will rewire our brains to think more like Him, and want to avoid the thoughts of the world; it will get us to see the trials as something to learn from, something to grow from. 

We have to be willing to put in work to see change; and to do that, we need to trust God in the process. In order to see Him in the process, we need to understand who He is. It's a cycle. A cycle that we can't ever take for granted. God is patient. He's going to give you what you need, but He won't force it on you. We have to want to make the change, in order to change; we have to want to see the good in the trials, to be able to see Him in all of them. 

Answer & Reflect on the following question (s)

Have you thought about the positive things that have come out of a trial you have faced? 
Did you have an unforeseen ability to hold yourself together during the trial, to help others cope?  
Do you have a vision for 2025? Is there anything that you will need to do to make it happen? 
If you're not sure of the answers to these questions, it's okay! Take them to God in prayer with an open heart, and you'd be surprised at what He will reveal to you! 

Speak to the Lord and spend some time in prayer:

Lord, I am in awe of your faithfulness. Thank you for being gracious to us when we don't pay close attention to your voice. Thank you for being available to us. Thank you for loving us unconditionally, even when we are stubborn. I pray that you work on our hearts to want to seek you, and want to know you more. Show us how to dive deeper. Fix our eyes on you, and show us the areas that we may need to put in the work to get to where we want to be. Thank you for what you are going to do for us in this upcoming prayer and fasting season. Thank you for the faith and the wisdom that you will bless your people with, God. In Jesus name, Amen!