(January 04, 2025) Carol Round reflects on 2025…

As we move ahead in 2025 trusting our God, what a wonderful, comforting and strengthening scripture is Deuteronomy 7:9 TLB, ‘Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is the faithful God who for a thousand generations keeps His promises and constantly loves those who love Him and who obey His commands.’

I also draw attention to John 16:33, one of my favourite Bible promises, one that Jesus gave His disciples… and we can believe that it applies to us to as we follow Him! Jesus had pointed out that ‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble‘ and added encouragingly ‘But take heart! I have overcome the world.’

The previous verses end with Jesus preparing His disciples for future days, predicting both persecution and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Ending His final teaching at the Last Supper Jesus concludes with a call to endure hardships, knowing that in Him His followers will be ultimately victorious.

But… there are times during trials, we just don’t feel victorious. We feel we’re stuck in a carton of lemons! Struct by hardships can have us questioning God’s plans and wondering if He has forgotten His promises to us.

Life’s Lemons
Life lemons! The very term suggests sourness or difficulty in life!

Yes, life can suddenly product lemons— even for Christians. What’s our answer? An old familiar idiom encourages us to turn lemons into lemonade… in other words, make the best of difficult situations, or simply embrace life in whatever form it hits us.

Now, admittedly, most of us don’t like the pain that comes with the bitterness of life’s lemons. But what if we can’t change our circumstances? What if God is the only One who can change us or our situation, but He’s not in a hurry? We must always remember that His timetable is different from ours.

What if it’s a growing season, a time of stretching? A time to reshape us? A time to let God be God? I think we can all relate. We’d all prefer to avoid the road bumps in life. But God has promised us He has overcome the world.

God’s Promises
God offers three promises we need to remember when life gives us lemons. When you can’t see your circumstances changing, remember this:

• God is near the brokenhearted
  He will never leave you. Never forsake you. No matter what you are facing, He is there beside you, walking you through the pain. Psalm 34:18 is a constant reminder: ‘The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.’
• God is good
  No matter what the circumstances, no matter how bad it gets, no matter the loss, God is good. He never changes. Psalm 136:1 says, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever.’
• God is faithful
  One promise you can always cling to is the faithfulness of God. No matter what your circumstances look like, God is faithful to you and to His word. The Bible says that He watches over His word to perform it. God will not let His word fail. Jeremiah 1:12 reads, ‘The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”’

Scriptures’ Rewards
Your circumstance may seem unfair and unjust. However, if you let God use it for His glory, you will be rewarded—even if you don’t see your circumstances changing at once. 1Corinthians 1:9 tells us that our ‘God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.’

Timothy Walker in his book Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering, ‘All shall work together for good; everything is needful that He sends; nothing can be needful that He withholds. …’

God can take the bitter and turn it into something sweet. He can take your messes and use your message for His kingdom.  He can take your lemons and make lemonade. And that’s a promise.

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Carol Round is an inspirational speaker and author whose encouraging articles have appeared in many publications. Carol especially loves hearing from readers, saying ‘Feel free to share this post.’ For more inspiration, visit https://carolaround.com. Link: carol@carolaround.com.

Recommended: Journaling with Jesus and companion The 40 Day Challenge. These help readers draw close to God— (See: http://bit.ly/2LGOvKN and Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/2pP5Yr6). Link: Focus on Jesus in 2025
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