“I have trusted in Your lovingkindness” (Psalm 13:5).
Dear Praying Friends:
As we enter a new year in a world that seems increasingly volatile and uncertain, where can we place our confidence?
In kings, or bankers, or friends, or family? Our possessions or our job, our connections, our abilities, or our knowledge?
King David, who had all the above - plus a plethora of deadly enemies - knew where to put his trust: in God alone, and especially his loving-kindness.
He does so because, in the past, God had “dealt bountifully with” (Psalm 13:6) him. He knows that God is faithful to his promises and to his people, to all who look to him alone for “salvation” in whatever form it may take.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been resting and reflecting on the Lord’s merciful dealings with me and with my family in 2025 and the years before that. Though he has “shown” us “hard things” (Psalm 60:3), he has never failed us or forsaken us. On the contrary, he has “dealt bountifully" with us. We can be sure that he will do the same in 2026.
This week, I want to wait upon God for guidance about priorities for the next six months. Not that I don’t have a lot of aspirations! The challenge is to discern what God wants, not what I want. Not to think more highly of myself than I ought to think, but to think soberly (Romans 12:3).
Dori and I will also be setting priorities together for our family life and ministry.
Our church will begin a new churchwide study next Sunday, on the letters of Jesus to the seven churches (Revelation 2-3). Dori will lead a women’s small group again, and I will alternate leadership of the Chinese Sunday School class with the chairman. We pray that the Lord will speak through these words of Jesus to show us his heart and his mind for us in 2026.
Most of all, may we know that he wants to give us “the bright and morning star” - himself - in all his beauty and goodness (Revelation 2:28; 22:16).
Yours in his never-failing lovingkindness and mercy,
Wright