Happy New Year!

For each of the past eight years I’ve chosen one word to inspire or guide me in the new year as well as a scripture verse to go along with it, but this year will be different. Instead of choosing a new word for 2025, I’m going to keep my one word for 2024 for another year.

Hope!

Hope has been such a significant and meaningful word for me for the past year that I’m not ready to let it go and focus on another.

The New Oxford American Dictionary defines hope as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen”. That meaning is definitely part of the reason that I originally chose it as my one word. There are many things that I hope for in 2025. I hope that my family is healthy and happy. I hope that my own health remains stable and that hubby and I can make the trips that we are planning. I hope that the renos on our house that will begin in a couple of weeks turn out well. Yes, I hope for many things, but there is a hope that is so much greater than any of these.

The Biblical word hope is much more than just wishful thinking. From the Hebrew word tikvah, it’s an expectation, a certainty, a strong expression of faith. It’s confidence that God is who He says He is and can do what He says He will do. That’s the hope that I hold fast to; a hope that doesn’t depend on my circumstances.

Last year, I had a difficult time choosing a Bible verse to go along with my one word because there were so many possibilities. I finally settled on two of them. Romans 15:13 says “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” and the first part of Hebrews 6:19 reads “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”  This year, even though I’m keeping my one word for another year, I decided to choose a different verse to go with it. Again, I pondered several possibilities and finally chose Romans 12:12. 

What do you hope for in 2025?

Have you chosen a word for the new year?