Hope For 2025, Thoughts On Abide, & Other Things For This Year

You know how some years seem like they have a cloud hanging over them? Walking into 2025 felt like that. There are events/dates happening this year that I am not looking forward to. They are going to be hard to get through and I wish I could skip them but I can't. My 2024 word did not go very well and then... God kind of pushed my 2025 word on me and I didn't want it but I know I need it.

I'm going to start by reflecting on my 2024 word and then talk about what I'm focusing on for 2025.

My word for 2024 was ABIDE. You can read more about that here. While I try to not have expectations of my words, I pick them to have a focus so I was hoping to abide more in Christ and honestly, learn what that even looks like. My words have a way of teaching me and changing me in ways I never expected, but at the end of 2024, I couldn't see any lessons or changes in my life. I won't lie, I felt a little defeated. Like I'd failed at my word. (I realize that doesn't make a ton of sense, failing at a word, but that was how I felt). I shared this with a friend and she said that she has felt that and known others who've experienced it as well. Her thought was that maybe ABIDE was less about me doing something and more about God wanting to remind me that He abides with me and wants me to do the same. Maybe it wasn't as much of an active word and just something He wanted to remind me of or speak over me. It's a thought, anyway.

Looking ahead to 2025, the year I don't want, I started to think about what areas of my life need attention. Ways I think I need to grow, issues I need to address. And the word that started coming up was "HOPE". Well, let me tell you, that was NOT what I wanted to hear!

Without making this long and dramatic, the idea of hope, for me, has become intertwined with certain expectations of life. So when I think of hoping, I'm thinking that one day, specific things will happen, and the thought of them not happening (which honestly is more likely), is really scary. I don't want to be disappointed and hurt, so I don't want to hope. Hope is frankly, pretty terrifying to me.

Now, I *know* that my hope is in Christ and eternity. I know that. But if I'm being honest, that doesn't always help me here and now. I did accept HOPE as my word for this year and I'm working to separate it from any ideas of what I want or think should happen. I'm trying to see hope as the Person that it is and leave it open for Him to show me how that changes my life in the present. In the hard things I'm going to have to walk through this year.

I hope that I end this year with a better understanding of how to live in hope.

If you pick words of the year, I'd love to hear how last year's went for you and what you chose for this year!

Songs of Hope

• Hold On To Hope - Jason Gray
  
• Hope Returns - Matthew West
  
• Hope In Front Of Me - Danny Gokey
  
• Keep On Hoping - Riley Clemmons
  
• Hopes & Dreams - 7eventh Time Down
  
• Hope For It - Cimorelli
  
• I Have This Hope - Tenth Avenue North
  
• Hope Is Rising - Mark Schultz
  
• Dare To Hope - Sanctus Real
  
• My Hope Is In You - Aaron Shust
  
• Living Hope - Phil Wickham
  

Verses

• Romans 5:3-5
  
• Romans 15:13
  
• Romans 12:12
  
• Psalm 27:13-14
  
• Psalm 31:23-24
  
• Psalm 39:7
  
• Psalm 62: 5
  
• Psalm 71:14
  
• Psalm 130:5
  

I have a few things that I'm doing this year. My "goals", I call them. Rather ironically, I feel like I'm doing more to abide this year than I did last year :) Anyway, my goals are:

• Memorize at least one verse a week. I have these 31 verses from Every Woman A Theologian and I'd like to memorize my verses for HOPE, so that's most of the year right there.
• Listen to the Bible while driving. I try to keep the radio off during 30 minute or shorter drives for the most part, so this would be on longer drives. I've been listening in the mornings a lot because it helps me calm down.
• Finish writing books of the Bible. I did not get to all the books I'd planned to last year, so I want to at least finish those. Maybe I'll do a few more. We'll see.
  

I also made a "25 in 25" list of books. Some are off my TBR, some are books I know are coming out this year, and some are just books I know I will read but why not add them! I even still have some room to add books that I find out about later. I don't need reading goals, but I saw an author do "24 in 24" and I thought it could be fun to try it this year.