Like many people, I am grateful for the fresh start that comes with the new year. 2025 was a tough year for a lot of people, including myself. Many people have placed their hope in a new president and an earthly government to give them a better life, only to be disappointed.
Things didn’t turn out how I hoped or planned. Honestly, there were days I was hoping I would just make it to the end of the year. It seemed like every time I overcame one obstacle, another was there waiting to trip me up in 2025:
Looking back, I shouldn’t be surprised at the many trials I faced. Jesus promised His followers would face hardships in this temporary kingdom (John 16:33). God’s people shouldn’t be surprised or discouraged when we face any kind of trauma in life.
Despite what many false teachers and so-called prophets teach, God’s people are not promised their best lives and earthly greatness in this life; that is a lie from the pits of hell, where these false teachers will spend eternity.
It has never been God’s plan for His people and creation to spend eternity separated from Him on this temporary planet. God’s plan has always been for mankind to be with Him in paradise (Genesis 3:8, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1-4).
It was Satan and mankind’s desire to have more than God had given them in the garden that caused the fall in separation between God and His creation in the garden (Genesis 3:1-24). God’s people should know that we are to seek God’s plans and ways over our selfish wants (Proverbs 3:5-6, Matthew 16:24).
We all have plans and goals in life, but Scripture is clear that God’s plans ultimately prevail in the end. Now, let me hear the church clap (Isaiah 14:24, Ephesians 1:11). A plan is defined as “A method for achieving an end; an orderly arrangement of parts of an overall design or objective.”
If you are a planner like me, you like the order and structure of making plans to accomplish things in anything that interrupts that order of your plan can throw you off kilter and frustrate you.
We plan and scheme to achieve our selfish dreams or to get anything in life we hope for in this temporary life. Many immature believers think that because they know God or Jesus that they magically get everything they want in life.
Both the Old Testament and the New Testament tell quite the opposite story about the patriarchs and saints of the faith (Job 1:21, Habakkuk 3:17-18, Luke 12:9 15, James 4:3). Even the patriarchs of the faith didn’t receive what they hoped or expected (Hebrews 11:17-40).
The entire nation of Israel wanted and expected an earthly king to come and vanquish their enemies and make them the greatest nation on earth because they had their minds set on an earthly kingdom, instead of God’s divine plans.
God sent the Messiah, His Son, as a humble King to teach and separate His followers from this evil and temporary world so that they can experience their best lives in heaven with God (John 3:16).
This world is corrupted by sin, and man’s plans are selfish and evil as they pursue temporary pleasures and earthly greatness (Genesis 6:4-6, Jeremiah 17:9, Matthew 15:18-19). Some ignorant and foolish believers believe that because they know God, their hearts are no longer evil and foolishly choose to listen to their corrupt hearts, despite the teachings and warnings of the Bible.
Yes, even God’s people have evil hearts. Mankind looks out for itself and whatever makes it happy. People defiantly disobey God’s way and plans for His creation because they like the dark (Isaiah 5:20, John 3:19, James 4:4).
These people who live in the dark do not understand the light or God’s plans (John 12:35, 2 Corinthians 4:4). As the Christmas story continues, God sent His Son into the darkness to save all who come and see the light (Isaiah 9:2, Luke 1:79, John 12:46). That was God’s plan from the beginning after the fall sent mankind in God’s creation back into the darkness.
The Prophet Moses foretold of God’s plan for His Son to defeat Satan and death (Genesis 3:15; 22:18). God’s plan was to save sinful mankind from sin and the trappings of this fallen kingdom, not leave us here in this broken and dying planet.
Unfortunately, there are too many people who claim to know God and His ways/plans who still like the darkness of this world and want to be great here. They, too, have put their hope into an evil earthly king who PROMISES to make them rich and great.
Like their king, they don’t want God’s plans; they want their childish and selfish plans instead (Romans 1:28, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 2 Peter 3: 3-4). I don’t care if you’re a Christian writer, Bible teacher, or a pastor; you shouldn’t be politickin’ to get what you want from God, instead of praying for God’s plan and will (Proverbs 16:9, Matthew 6:10). In mature believers, they try to manipulate God to get their will.
Manipulation is a selfish worldly means to get what you want in this life. When I was younger, I thought I could manipulate my parents to get what I wanted, but my parents saw right through it. Likewise, there are many people who think they can manipulate God to get what they want in life, and sometimes they do for a while, until they realize they were wrong and God’s way is better.
The first Adam thought he could fool manipulate God to become great in the garden (Genesis 2:16-17). All of these years later, the entire world is still paying for his foolishness:
This world and Satan work against God to get what they want; God’s people work with God to accomplish what He wants (1 Corinthians 3:9, Philippians 2:13). The world lives for temporary things of this world, not the things of God and heaven.
Jesus taught his cap that followers to put our hope and treasures in heaven, not to manipulate God for them here (Matthew 6:19-21). If the disciples in the patriarchs of the faith didn’t live their best lives here, neither will we (Hebrews 11:13-40).
God knows the true Saints from the fake goats who sneak in (Ezekiel 34:17-24, Matthew 25:31-46). If we really belong to God, we will deny ourselves daily and choose God’s plans over our selfish wants (Luke 9:23)!
