My Word for 2025
Words matter, and there are no words like the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit calls them “wholesome words” (1 Timothy 6:3). As a new year begins it is not unusual to hear people wish one another a healthy and prosperous new year. There is a spiritual health and prosperity that is found only in the pages of Scripture. The two-edged sword wounds and makes whole – the Bible has the power to put sin to death and bring man to life!
We read in Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” If this is true of man’s words, how much more of God’s Words. With His Word He created. With His Word we are born again. With His Word we are renewed again and again. “The Lord killeth, and maketh alive…” (1 Samuel 2:6). God always works through His Word.
Throughout the years I have made a practice of taking one Bible word as my word for the year. I have discovered by experience the power of one word from the Word! Last year I took the words “watch and pray” as a weekly and daily reminder to intentionally give myself to prayer. I still have a long way to go, but the Lord is teaching me more and more about my prayer life.
BELIEVE
In recent days I have been thinking much about the new year. One word keeps coming to my heart and mind: BELIEVE. What an eternity of truth is wrapped up and opened up in that one word!
Believe is found 85 times in the English Authorized Version of the Bible. Its first usage is with the man who became known as the father of the faithful, Abraham. “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Faith is not only how we come to God, but how we continue to follow Him.
Four times in Scripture the invisible God reminds us “the just shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38). The Christian life is a faith life from start to finish. There will never be a time when the Lord does not allow something into your life that you have to trust Him for! Only when faith becomes sight will the journey of faith end.
This was the lesson our Lord Jesus repeatedly taught his first followers: “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). Little wonder that their prayer was: “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). Increased faith brings increased blessing because everything God does with man He does through faith. Even the practice of prayer is powerless if the prayer is not rooted in genuine faith (Matthew 21:22; Hebrews 11:6).
And so, my word for 2025 is the Bible word “believe.” Each week I will choose one of the great faith verses of Scripture, and each day I want to intentionally exercise faith for specific things.
What do you need to believe God for this year?
You may choose your own Bible word to both anchor and lead you on in the coming year. Whatever word the Lord leads you to study and apply, you can be sure it will grow your faith; God’s Word always feeds our faith. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
I look forward to sharing a different faith verse with you each Sunday throughout 2025, and studying some faith passages through our ETJ broadcast as the year progresses. May God give us all a spiritually healthy and prosperous new year in the Word!
