Mid-week Devotional:
Week of December 29, 2025
Starting the week of Thanksgiving through Christmas there is an essence in the air of excitement and anticipation. Many individuals begin planning for gatherings with friends and family. Gifts are purchased for friends and family. Homes are decorated with lights and a Christmas tree. Christmas cards and packages are mailed to distant family and friends. Greater amounts of food are devoured than is needed to survive.
When Christmas Day is over, maybe you are among the many who are tired and not looking forward to the winter months ahead. There are many who look out their windows and see only bare trees and brown grass. When they go outside, they feel the cold air surrounding them; brushing across their face and seeping into their clothes. Their response is to shiver and hurry back inside their home where it is warm.
Maybe you have responded that way this week.
Maybe you are among those whose response to the needs of those in their community during Thanksgiving and Christmas changed. Instead of being fully involved in reaching out to those in need within the community maybe less were served or maybe none...
Scripture from the Old Testament book of Job 9:6-11, reminds us of God's continual presence, and creative power.
Hear the Word of God,
“4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength – who has resisted him, and succeeded? – 5 he who removes mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger; 6 who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble; 7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; 8 who alone stretched out the heavens and tramples the waves of the Sea; 9 who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; 10 who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number. 11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.”
This is God’s word for God’s people. Thanks be to God. AMEN.
Job’s words remind each of us, you and I, that we do not have control over everything within the world around us. We do not control the rising of the sun nor do we control its setting. We do not control the rotation of the earth nor its tilt on its axis.
What we do have control over is how we respond to the needs of the world around us; for their needs change during each season of the year and sometimes daily.
Today and in the days ahead may you find time to reflect upon God’s presence in your life and how God is calling to you to respond to the needs of those around you.
May you find time to reflect upon what your personal response will be.
I will be praying for you.
Peace be with you.
AMEN.