Every New Year that God gives us should be about God’s Word and will more planted and rooted in our lives. More time must translate into another God-given opportunity to be and do what pleases God. God’s Word speaks often about time. We are told not to take time for granted: “Do not boast about tomorrow” (Proverbs 27:1). We are instructed to know the difference between time and eternity: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). We are challenged about things that we must prioritize at specific moments in time: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Our January focus in the pulpit will be on four priorities that we should seek after in 2026: Establishing goals, pursuing growth, seeking after the good, and faithfully participating in the established gatherings at Waterbury. The Lord God is keeping an accurate record of our lives, for which we must give an account: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done” (2 Corinthians 5:10). In 2026, we will add another year of activities to the book God is keeping of our lives. Throughout January, I want God’s saints and servants at Waterbury to be laser-focused on four words: goals, growth, good, and gatherings. As we fully buy into the lessons, we are positioning ourselves to make 2026 another year of pleasing the Lord our God. Vhh.  

Every single day, we can see the abundance of our blessings. As the saying goes, “Count your blessings, name them one by one.” The ability to see, taste, smell, touch, and think with a sound mind. In this fallen world, thousands of people no longer enjoy the blessings just mentioned. But I’m thinking about the need to greatly celebrate the wonderful saints and servants at Waterbury who endured some tremendously hard life experiences in 2025 but maintained their trust in God. For some, it was sickness, disease, family challenges, the deep grief of loss, even fervent prayers that were not answered as hoped. But our members at Waterbury, many that I can name, kept their hope alive. For this, we celebrate the steadfastness of their trust in God. They are to be greatly commended and celebrated.

• The Enemy tempted them to doubt, disbelieve, and even curse God, but they still worship Him!
• The Enemy tempted them to fall into a defeating despair, but they still stand on God’s Word!
• The Enemy tempted them to stop praying, but they continue to pray to God every passing day!
• The Enemy tempted them to go back to some of the old ways, but they are still living God’s will!

This is why we take this moment to celebrate their faith in God. The Lord makes this great promise in the opening line in Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you.” Beloved brother and sister at Waterbury, press on because the Lord God is surely with you. VHH  

To present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1 NASB)

In Romans, Paul exhorts us to settle for nothing less than give God our best. But we are prone to desire the most from God, while we ask Him to accept less from us. What does it mean to be a living and holy sacrifice? It means offering our best self to God while we are living. It also means that we must always make true holiness a top priority pursuit. It means that we must willingly, readily, and joyfully “present” ourselves to God. The Lord wants us to give Him our very best out of a free-will spirit of love, not what we feel forced to do. Think about it, every single day, in some type of way, God calls us to make a sacrifice for Him. Often this will involve sacrificing our time, effort, and energy to be focused, faithful, and fruitful in His good work. But let’s not forget, the challenging part is the sacrificial part. We are not giving God our best if it always has to line up with our convenience and comfort. If we are always in control, rather than being surrendered to God’s control, we will tend to give less than our best. Child of God, we cannot out give the Lord God. In Jesus Christ, God has given us His very best for our eternal salvation and spiritual blessings. Let’s sacrifice to give God our best! VHH   

Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)

This is one of the wonderful things we appreciate from God – the marvelous ways that He invites us to come to Him for relief. In His infinite love, God calls us to come into His presence to find the best help possible. We may find ourselves drifting away from God, but this is not God’s will. The Lord God desires that we live out our lives near and dear to Him. Jesus was looking out at people who were deeply hurt and humiliated by life’s many troubles. For one reason, or another, many people were seeking to handle the bad experiences of their life without relying on God. But this approach was not producing the best outcome. So, Jesus declared what has always been God’s desire, to usher people into His presence to tap into God’s promises and power. No matter what the trouble is, Jesus calls us to draw close to Him to bring about the right outcome. The pride, or even despair, that may keep us from drawing near to God must be outright rejected. Jesus knows what we must know, some burdens are much too heavy for us to bear or fix in our own human resources. Child of God, get close and stay close to God. In this way, you will discover God’s spiritual rest for your weary soul. VHH      

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrew 12:1)

Every athlete knows the tremendous difference between practice time and game time. Practice is extremely vital. In many ways, it determines what happens on game day. In practice, the plays to be used must be precisely executed, drills must be carried out, the film evaluated, and the strategy finalized for achieving victory over the opponent. But it’s still practice! Everything is ultimately about playing the game. Guess what? While the opposing team gets the ultimate focus, the crowd in the stands also matters greatly. At times, it can make a real difference. This is why Paul, writing about spiritual matters so much more important than an earthly game, calls attention to “a cloud of witnesses.” The cheers and roar of the crowd can greatly boost the momentum needed for victory. Child of God, as you seek to win in the spiritual realm, imagine so many great servants of the Kingdom looking at your walk of faith. Think seriously about how they prayed fervently, obeyed faithfully, and fought steadfastly to win in the end. Yes, you are fighting the good fight right now that others have fought. Their life and legacy are a constant reminder for you to set your heart on gaining what they now possess. Press on child of God, look up and imagine the saints of old cheering you on to victory. VHH

You are good, and what You do is good; teach me Your decrees (Psalm 119:68). 

We’ve heard it. We have likely declared it – “God is good all the time!” But under what life conditions do we make this bold declaration? Quite often, it’s when we are living in a moment, or season, of God’s blessings and breakthroughs. It’s true, to know God up close and personal is to be thoroughly acquainted with His goodness. In his inspirational psalms, David writes so much about God’s goodness. The familiar verse listed above provides sound insight about God’s goodness. Notice the order in the words David speaks about the goodness of our God. First, he calls attention to the truth that God is good by nature. Goodness is embedded in the Divine character. Second, because God is good in his nature, He always acts in ways that are good. Not good based on our human standards or understanding, but good according to a righteous, holy, and perfect God. In this way we rightly declare – “God is good all the time. Because of who He is, God cannot be or do anything that is not good. This explains why we should believe in, and declare, God’s goodness even when things are not at all as we would like them to be. Child of God, right now, think on that difficult, unpleasant, even painful thing that has come before you, and raise your head up to boldly declare that “God is good all the time.” Do it! And remember, “When the praises go up, the blessings will come down.” VHH   

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him… Psalms 25:14

It’s true! God has a secret that He wants you to know. Most often, when the Word of God speaks of a secret, it has reference to knowledge, understanding, and insight that God has yet to make known. That’s interesting. Think about it. The God of all wisdom always has more and more to reveal for our good. Truth is, we truly need to know everything that God wants to tell us. It’s not good, at all, for us to not know what God wants us to know. God makes known His Word of truth to give guidance and direction in the pathways of blessings and breakthroughs. All spiritual understanding that comes from God is always advantageous and useful.  So many missteps and mistakes can be traced back to the lack of spiritual knowledge from God. But in this context, the knowledge, or secret, that God wants to give is conditional. It requires that we fear God. That is, that we worship God in genuine reverence. Fearing God also means that we establish boundaries and restraints on our behavior not wanting to invite God’s anger into our life. There are things that we wisely and rightly fear in this life. The Psalmist declares that we should fear God. Why! That God may pour into our spirit the wisdom and understanding to live the GOOD LIFE and be abundantly blessed. Child of God, fear God and receive the wonderful secrets that come from the living and all wise God. VHH  

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5) 

In God’s Word, we come to discover that night may involve much more than the evening time of the twenty-four-hour day. The night can be a metaphor for spiritual and moral darkness, mental and emotional unrest, a time of trouble, and a time waiting for the light of God’s guidance and deliverance. No doubt, David composed so many of his psalms in what we might call nighttime experiences. Difficult and draining moments when David learned to maintain his steadfast faith, trust, and confidence in God. Pouring over the chronology of David’s life, we see the battles that David had to fight in the “night:” murderous attacks from Saul, battles with the enemies of Israel, struggles with anguish and despair, personal failures that left him defeated, and family woes because of his sin. David was very familiar with the nighttime hardships of life. But as was his nature, David could always find a reason to declare God’s goodness and greatness in the nighttime moments of his life. David admits, life’s nighttime moments produce weariness and weeping. These moments cannot be absolutely avoided. In the natural world, we experience both the day and the night. It’s also true of our faith journey – there will be high moments in the light and low moments in the dark. But David declares, God’s people can trust God to bring us into a renewed joy after we have faithfully endured the night. VHH 

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it (Matthew 16:25) 

Of course, the spiritual wisdom of Jesus makes no sense to the world. The world declares that we must win in everything, and anything, that we pursue over the course of our life. It may not be the right thing to pursue, even the good and best thing. But if it’s what we decide to pursue in life we should go after it – the world calls this winning. But this is the dangerous and even deadly mindset that Jesus spoke out against. Not everything is worth pursuing, and there are some so called “victories” that we must never set our hearts to win. Worldly aims and goals that go against God’s will are not worth attaining. Evil desires that God’s word condemns are not worth fulfilling. Prideful ambitions that elevate what we want over the will of God is not worth accomplishing. Let’s be clear about it. Jesus is always right. He’s always right because Jesus reveals and speaks truth: “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). And Jesus is always right because He reveals God’s wisdom for our life: “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

According to Jesus, we should follow God’s way of winning. This means prioritizing eternal life over and above our earthly life. Jesus teaches us how to win both in this present life and in eternity to come. Let’s choose to be winners following the wisdom of Jesus. Let’s do it!