The year 2025 is rolling on no matter what your level of preparedness has been. If your year looks anything like mine it is already filling with exciting and stressing events. When I get a fresh calendar, I like to hold it up to God and say “This represents the days you’ve laid out ahead of me. Fill it with moments of blessings and the things you have for me in your kingdom plan.” I’m sure I’ve said before that I work best when there’s a plan. A new planner helps with this. Knowledge that things are laid out just brings me peace. Well, God is the ultimate planner! What He sets into motion has no option to deviate and is for our good.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NASB2020)
As believers, we trust that God doesn’t make mistakes. We are often quick to remind others of such when they are struggling with understanding a why or how. I wonder then, why do we question if God has gotten it right when He calls us to a purpose. Moses did it and requested that God send someone else. Jonah questioned God’s instructions and even ran from his calling. The disciplines questioned much of what Jesus did in his earthly ministry, yet all went according to plan. I know I’ve questioned some things God has placed on my own heart. It’s one thing to run it through a filter of discernment, but it is another to say “LORD, I don’t think you understand what you’re asking of me.” HE designed the universe and everything in it. HE set our place in space and time according to His will. HE has decreed His standards and has set the time for all things to be brought to bear. So why do we still question?
This inspiration came when I received a word from a woman of God who felt led in the Holy Spirit to speak it over me. I am not one who says “I need a word for the new year,” but I’m open to any word that the Spirit breathes into me. What was this revelation? This lovely woman said she was really being led to tell me the LORD is giving the word “establish” to me. She encouraged me to reflect on this word, and while I had a conviction right away, I thought “No, that’s too big.” However I sought to unpack this a little more. Being a “word nerd,” I went to my trusty Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary to get to basics. While it has variations in its definitions, what jumped out to me about the word “establish” was “to make firm or stable”, “to put on a firm basis – set up.” This—along with the dear sister-in-Christ that brought me this, word saying that she sees God building something through me—was again leading me back to the thing I had deemed “too big”.
“Alright,” I thought, “time to take it to scripture.” Searching the concordance for verses containing the word “establish”, there was one that took root. “He shall build for me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.” 1 Chronicles 17:12 (NASB2020) I had to sit back and let God take up the space between me and all I was reading. It was a moment of recognition. The LORD had given me this vision decades ago. It was a pipedream then, and remains a monumental task now. Yet just like those in the Bible when faced with God’s will, it’s time to submit. There is nothing that is “too big” for God. I am not foolish enough to turn down God, nor would I want to. “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24 (NASB2020) When God says this thing that He stirred in you in your youth, which He has made your heart’s desire, has now found its maturity and is ready to be established, that should be met with rejoicing not intrepidation. So I say “Yes LORD!” I don’t know how, but I know it is in His hand.
So how about you? Is this a year for something long awaited to be birthed? Maybe you’ve been questioning whether you are the right person for the job. Maybe like me, you’ve thought your call is too big to even be a reality. Maybe you are just at the beginning of a journey and don’t even know what will come to light. Wherever you may be, give it to God, like the days in my planner, and trust that He’s got this.
Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Ezekiel 16:60 NLT
Author Dellaca Ferraiz Reynolds 