Theme: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding – Prov 3:5
Dear friends, another year is here, and we thank God for his unfailing love and faithfulness which are new every morning. Permit me to share some thoughts from Proverbs 3:5 to encourage your faith and trust in God as we begin this new year, 2025.
In our world today, most people lean upon something, or trust in something, or believe in something, or hope in something. For some, science can explain every human situation. For others, material gain can win every battle in life. Others yet believe in the position and power they have attained. For some yet further, academic achievement, they believe, makes them the fountain of all knowledge. The context of Proverbs 3:5 warns us against this hubristic behaviour, for our faith must only be in God.
It is important to note that vanity will not last forever. In this new year, I encourage you to trust and lean upon God alone and not on anything or any person, because there is nothing more sure and more certain than God.
The Hebrew verb with the three letters ‘shin-ayin-nun’ in Proverbs 3:5 means ‘to lean’. The verb can be used literally such as when Saul was leaning on his own spear on Mount Gilboa in 2 Sam 1:6, or when Samson was said to be leaning on the two central pillars of the Philistine temple of Dagon in Judges 16:29-31. John the Apostle leaned also on Jesus’ bosom during the Last Supper as described in John 13:23. The verb to lean can also be used metaphorically and two vivid examples are seen in Proverbs 3:5 and 2 Chronicles 2:13-14. In its metaphorical sense, the verb may mean ‘to trust’ in something unknown or invisible.
As Christians, we are to walk by faith and not by sight. We are called upon to lean on and trust in Jesus Christ alone for he is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the only one we can depend on because he is always for and never against us. He is always there as our present help in times of trouble.
We can therefore confidently lean upon him for he alone is always trustworthy and faithful no matter what. His name is Emmanuel our God with us. As the year unfolds and matures from days to months, I pray for all of us that nothing in life may be too big to take away our faith and trust in God. If Christ is in our vessel, he will calm the rough seas of life, and we will then smile at the storm.
On this high note, let me congratulate all of us for witnessing God’s blessings of a New Year, and to take this opportunity to wish His Excellency the President and his cabinet and the Government of The Gambia, God’s protection and wisdom even as they lead us in this New Year and in the days to come.
We wish to further thank His Excellency and his Government for the climate of religious tolerance and peace which we continue to enjoy as a country.
I wish all of us a happy and prosperous New Year full of God’s favour and grace.
Issued at the Bishopscourt, Banjul, The Gambia,
With Every Blessing,
Lord Bishop, Anglican Diocese of Gambia
