(Presented by Lisa Bishop)

It is so vital that you and I are intentionally investing time to be in God’s Word, immersing ourselves in the truth of the Bible. Isaiah 55:11 reminds us that when God sends out his Word it always produces fruit. When we read and meditate on God’s divine instruction, the truth of who God is and his character, who we are in him and the life he has empowered us to live…as we invite and surrender to the Holy Spirit at work in us, we are guaranteed a productive return.

There are so many investments we make today, with our time and resources, with our finances. And we will not always get the return on investment we hoped for. BUT… the investment we can count on is spending time with Jesus, letting God’s Word penetrate, renew and transform our hearts, minds and ways of being and living. God promises that his Word will accomplish all he wants it to, and it will prosper everywhere he sends it.

One of the verses I have memorized over the last several years is 1 Thessalonians 5:11: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Paul tells the church in Thessalonica to “encourage one another and build one another up, just as they are doing.” He is making an assumption about believers in Jesus, that they are in fact encouraging one another in God’s truth. That should be true of us, that we are encouraged and built up in our faith and we are an encouragement to others. Which means we need Christian community. (As a side note - if you are not part of a Bible preaching church and small group Bible study may I kindly encourage you to participate in one!) To be encouraged and built up in our faith, it is necessary that we are part of a Christian community. It is also essential that we make it a daily habit of abiding in Jesus.

What does it mean to abide in Jesus?

I was listening to a podcast and the speaker said, your life is a reflection of who you spend the most time with. In other words, tell me who you are hanging out with, and I will tell you who you will become. He was saying that the people we surround ourselves with on a daily basis will influence our lives, our thoughts, our behavior and actions.

Think about the three to four people you spend the most time with. Do they encourage you in your faith and to exhibit Christ-likeness? When people spend time with you, are they encouraged to love and follow Jesus?

Our lives will reflect who we spend time with. And the most important relationship that you and I as believers have is our relationship with Jesus. When we spend time with him, when we abide in him, our lives will reveal and exhibit Christ. And when we display Christ in our lives, we are living out our purpose, our highest and greatest calling. We are putting his glory on display and drawing people to him.

And when we abide in Christ, we live our lives set apart, we bear fruit.

Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5).

Jesus paints the metaphor of abiding and compares it to a vine and branches. Parts of California are known as wine country where there are miles of vineyards. When you look at the vineyards you can see thick vines with several branches growing off of them. The branches that are healthy and connected to the vine have beautiful and juicy grapes growing from them. There are also some branches of grapes that have broken apart from the vine and have started to wither and shrivel up. They are no longer good for producing what they were intended to produce.

When Jesus uses this picture of a vine and branches and abiding,

We’ve all heard and said a lot of “Happy New Years” lately right? Well, what do we mean when we wish someone happiness for the new year?

Often when someone says “Happy New Year,” they mean “Good Luck,” because they see happiness as a consequence of good things happening to you. If you have the good luck not to have health problems, or money problems, or emotional issues, then you will be happy—so they think—and therefore they are wishing you a year filled with good luck, nice circumstances.

Others think of a Happy New Year as one filled with prosperity—you have a good job earning good money. You are successful in your pursuit of financial stability and you have no money worries. To them that would constitute a happy new year. Still others think that a happy new year is one where your internal emotional state is good—you have good self-esteem and you are emotionally strong.

What would be your definition of a Happy New Year? If you could engineer the next 353 days of 2022, how would you design those days to make you happy?

Here’s the truth—you cannot engineer the next 300 or so days. You don’t know what the future holds. Perhaps you’ll have very happy circumstances and life will prove easy and good. But as soon as tomorrow, life could take a drastic turn in the wrong direction and your circumstances could change overnight. We have all lived through that since early 2020, haven’t we?

Your life—and mine—is in the hands of our God. As the old song says, “I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.” If you live in 2022 for the purpose of pleasing the Lord, abiding in Christ and trusting the God who loves you, then this new year will bring you joy and contentment and peace—and yes, some happiness.

So, whatever this year holds for you, I pray you will know Jesus better at the end of 2022 than you do now, and you will trust and love him more as you learn how much he loves you. That’s the best year you could possibly have.

If you would like to read the entire week’s message, click here to view/download the PDF.

If you would like "My One Word for 2022" reminder card, click here to download the pdf.

I wonder if you have ever thought about the power that is released when you become a thankful person. Let me tell you some of the great things that will happen:

People will like you much better. Thankful people are nice to be around. Your relationships will improve. You'll have more friends.

Your energy level will go up. It's true, because when you're thankful, you unleash a lot of good energy that is often wasted on complaining and negativism. You will do more work in less time. And that's going to make you a better employee, which will make your boss happy! I won't go so far as to say you'll get a raise, but then again—who knows?

Your stress will go down. I'm not making this up. When you are being thankful, you are thinking about the good things in your life, and that keeps you from focusing on the negative things. It's like a release valve on a pressure cooker—you will see your stress go down.

Your face will be prettier—or more handsome, whichever you prefer! Think about it—when you are thankful, you're not worried or fretting, and those things cause lines in our faces and age us! You'll look younger!

Your posture will improve. When you're thankful, you stand up straighter. When you're negative, your shoulders tend to stoop and your back curves.

There's power in thankfulness. You have much to gain. But way above and beyond all of these, here's the most important reason to be thankful:

You will honor and glorify Jesus Christ as he deserves. When you overflow with thankfulness, you tell the world what Jesus has done for you and you are a good ambassador for him. Not to mention, it pleases him to see your thankful heart.

That’s why I’m urging you to adopt this one word as your word for 2022:  Thankfulness. Focus on it all year; pray it into your life; remind yourself every day to be thankful.

If you would like "My One Word for 2022" reminder card, click here to download the pdf.

I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that we’re five days into a New Year. This is a good time for you and me to ask ourselves:  What is my personal theme for 2022? What attitude or characteristic do I want God to create in me this year? David prayed, “Create in me a new heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). It’s a good prayer for us in this New Year.

A really good word to focus on all year is thankfulness. If you look at the sacrifices that are a part of the Mosaic law given by God, you'll discover that there were many sacrifices of thanksgiving. This was a ritual God put in place to remind his people that they were to be thankful people. We're no longer under the law, but we still need to be reminded to be thankful.

Here are some more practical ways to become a thankful person—to learn to practice thanksgiving.

Do the thankful alphabet. Start with A and go through Z, naming something starting with each letter for which you are thankful. You can have some fun with this; it's a great game to play in the car with your kids and you'll be teaching them to practice thankfulness.

Make every Tuesday a “Thankful Tuesday” or each Thursday a “Thankful Thursday.” You can share this with your family or your co-workers and have some fun with it, but it will teach the joy of practicing thankfulness.

Sing songs of thanksgiving. The Bible says to sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. Go for it.

Begin every prayer time with thanksgiving. Psalm 100 tells us to enter the gates of the Lord with thanksgiving and enter his courts with praise. Whenever you enter into the presence of God, always enter with thanksgiving. Make the first words out of your mouth words of thankfulness.

I have found that this changes my prayer time. If I begin with all my needs and requests, I am self-focused. If I begin with thanksgiving—reciting some of the many things I have to be thankful for—I am God-focused. What a difference that makes in my time spent with God, and that in turn makes a difference in my day.

If you would like "My One Word for 2022" reminder card, click here to download the pdf.

Have you thought about a New Year’s resolution for 2022? I would suggest that you don’t need a resolution, you just need a word. One word that you will focus on all year. One word that says what you want God to do for you this year. One word that indicates an attitude and a commitment you’re willing to take on with God’s help.

Actually, I would like to suggest one word that would work for you and anybody else you know—and that one word is thankfulness. Just suppose you determine to make thankfulness the theme of your life in this new year. Just suppose that you are willing to put away the negative thoughts and the complaining spirit, and overflow with thankfulness throughout the year? How would that make 2022 different from 2021?

This is a characteristic I've been trying to cultivate more and more in my life because I want to be thankful for all my many, many blessings. But also because being thankful is a major stress buster! I'm not kidding; one of the best things you can do to reduce your stress, lower your blood pressure, and lengthen your life is to practice thankfulness.

Notice I said "practice thankfulness.” You see, it's really easy to get caught up in complaining because that's what we hear around us quite often. And we’ve all gone through—still going through—a worldwide pandemic that gave us lots to complain about, didn’t it? Don't you hear a good bit of griping and complaining where you work? Well, you might have caught that complaining disease without realizing it. So, you need to practice thankfulness.

Here are some suggestions to help you do that.

Put a sign on your desk or your screen saver or your refrigerator that says: “My one word for 2022: Thankfulness.” I think we just sometimes need simple reminders. It sure wouldn’t hurt. In fact, we've prepared a reminder like this that you can use, if you like.

Put on thankfulness each morning before you leave home. While you're buttoning your shirt or putting on your shoes, just make a little ritual each day of saying, "And I'm also putting on thankfulness to wear all day today."

Very simple and easy things to do—but those little rituals and reminders could truly make a difference in your life in this new year.

If you would like "My One Word for 2022" reminder card, click here to download the pdf.

Christmas and New Year’s celebrations are over—I’m guessing that you survived nicely. We’re in a New Year. So, you think I’m going to talk about New Year’s resolutions, right?

Well, not really, because my experience is that those New Year’s resolutions last about a week, if that long. But I do have an idea—maybe even a challenge—for you as you face this new year of 2022. I suggest you choose this one word to be your theme for the year—and that one word is thankfulness.

Instead of making resolutions, for the past few years I’ve been choosing one word to focus on for the year—one word to think about and pray about and remember. For example, one year my one word was wisdom. Last year my one word was transition. And I prayed about those throughout the year because I desperately needed wisdom and last year was truly a year of transition for me and for our ministry.

Well, this year I want to suggest that it could make a huge difference in our lives and the lives of those around us if our one word was thankfulness. You can never over-emphasize the importance of being always thankful. Paul wrote to the Colossians:

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7).

Overflowing with thankfulness—that's what we should be if we have received Christ Jesus as our Lord and are continuing to grow in our faith. In other words, thankfulness is supposed to be a trademark of a Christian.

Now, ask yourself this question:  Would people who know you well—who are around you often and see you in real-life environments regularly—would they describe you as a thankful person? Do you overflow with thankfulness? If something is overflowing, people would notice, don't you think?

Are you up for this challenge—to make thankfulness your one word for 2022? If so, I want to send you a sign you can put where you’ll see it often—a sign that says, “My one word for 2022: Thankfulness.”

If it’s going to be your one word this year, you’re going to need reminders around you all the time. So, I want to help you start this new year with a very thankful heart.

If you would like "My One Word for 2022" reminder card, click here to download the pdf.

While resolutions don’t seem to be the answer for most of us, I do believe that as the New Year begins, we have an opportunity to take stock of the past year and ask ourselves what we’d like to see happen in our lives as we face this new year of 2022. So, I suggest you choose one word that you will focus on throughout the year. One word that says what you want God to do for you this year. One word that indicates an attitude and a commitment you’re willing to take on with God’s help. Just one word—and then you put that word all around you, you pray about it everyday, you find Scripture that reinforces that one word, and you ask God to change you in 2022.

One of the first words I chose when I began this habit was wisdom. I was facing a new challenge in ministry, as we undertook to open a home for women who experienced sexual exploitation, and I knew that I was in over my head. I desperately needed wisdom. Well, James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” So, I prayed that verse into my life almost everyday, and God did indeed answer my prayers. Another year my one word was discernment, which is a little different from wisdom. I knew I needed to be able to discern God’s will and his voice in my life more clearly, and not be deceived by lies from the enemy. And that was very helpful.

I am now convinced that choosing one word to focus on for a year really gives God the opportunity to make some needed changes in us, to truly learn to seek God for what we need. So, I want to suggest that it could make a huge difference in your life, too. And if you don’t immediately know what one word to choose, let me suggest the one for 2022, and that is thankfulness. Paul wrote to the Colossians:

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness (Colossians 2:6-7).

Overflowing with thankfulness—that should be true of us if we have received Christ Jesus as our Lord and are continuing to grow in our faith. In other words, thankfulness is supposed to be a trademark of a Christian.

Now, ask yourself this question: Would people who know you well—who are around you often and see you in real-life environments regularly—would they describe you as a thankful person? Do you overflow with thankfulness? If something is overflowing, people would notice, don't you think?

Just suppose you determine to make thankfulness the theme of your life in this new year. Just suppose that you are willing to put away the negative thoughts and the complaining spirit, and overflow with thankfulness throughout the year? How would that make 2022 different from 2021?

This is a characteristic I've been trying to cultivate more and more in my life because I want to be thankful for all my many, many blessings. But also because being thankful is a major stress buster! I'm not kidding; one of the best things you can do to reduce your stress, lower your blood pressure, and lengthen your life is to practice thankfulness.

Notice I said, "practice thankfulness.” You see, it's really easy to get caught up in complaining because that's what we hear around us quite often. We’ve come through two of the toughest years most of us have faced and our lives have been turned upside down in many ways. So, complaining and worrying and fear have found their way into our minds quite often, isn’t that true? You hear words of hopelessness and complaining a lot, where you work and elsewhere. Well, you might have been caught up in that complaint mode without realizing it. So, you need to practice thankfulness.

Here are some suggestions to help you do that.

Put a sign on your desk or your screen saver or your refrigerator t...

To those of you who may be struggling with loneliness at this time, let me remind you that it’s part of being human. Christians are vulnerable to feelings of loneliness and it is not necessarily a spiritual issue. Loneliness is a human condition that is common to everyone at some times in their lives.

However, if you deal with loneliness in the wrong way, it could lead you to form harmful relationships, to settle for inappropriate relationships, to go places and do things you know are not right just to try to find companionship and stop those feelings of loneliness. We all need friends and a support system, but the wrong friends will do you far more harm than good.

And keep this in mind: If you try to fill up that lonely place in your heart with people, before looking first to Jesus Christ, you are setting yourself up for further disappointment and it could simply make your loneliness worse rather than better. I had to learn this some years ago, when I had to make a choice to first seek the presence of Christ, to get to know him better, to allow his love to become more real and more powerful in my life, instead of trying to solve my loneliness by desperately looking for a meaningful relationship.

One way to combat feelings of loneliness is to quote scripture and fill your mind with truth that can set you free. In verse 6 of Psalm 42, we read, "My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you...” Now this is a very good technique and habit for all of us to learn. When we feel lonely, we should then force ourselves to remember and recite out loud God's goodness to us in times past.

Are you having a tough time today, feeling alone and lonely? Then, stop right now and talk to yourself; find some place where you can say something like, "Look, Mary, what is your problem? The God of all the universe loves you and cares for you, he's met your need time and again. Remember that Jesus will never leave you or forsake you, and you have a wonderful Friend in Jesus.” Finding relief from loneliness is often a choice we make to replace wrong thoughts with right thoughts and decide to live in the truth of God’s Word.

If you would like to read the entire week’s message, click here to view/download the PDF.

It's amazing how many people are very lonely. Psalm 68:6 says "God makes a home for the lonely; he leads out the prisoners into prosperity. Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.” I have found this verse to be exactly true in my life. As I allowed God to make a home for me and to accept his presence as sufficient in my life, I was truly set free from the awful heaviness of loneliness.

That verse says only the rebellious dwell in a parched land. When we refuse to allow God to be our cure for loneliness, when we continue to try to do it our way and fill the empty void with people and activities, we'll continue to find loneliness our companion. Your feelings of loneliness may be because you are still rebelling against God's answers. You don't like the idea of learning to let him fill up your empty time and change your lonely feelings. As long as you continue to rebel, you will continue to live in that parched land of loneliness.

But there’s no doubt that God created us for fellowship and companionship, and we need people in our lives, too. When Jesus was facing crucifixion, he took his three closest companions with him while he prayed. He needed God’s presence and he needed their presence and support. The Apostle Paul spoke of his need to be with his companions and his encouragers.

If you are lonely because you don’t have a good friend or friends, or they’re not nearby, I would remind you that in order to have friends, you have to reach out to others and be a friend. So, ask yourself what you could do for someone else to be their friend, to meet their need, instead of waiting for someone to be your friend. We reap what we sow—that’s a biblical principle. So, if you want friendships, sow friendships; become a friend to others.

Loneliness can be very crippling, but you can take positive steps—by God’s grace—to overcome those depressing feelings of loneliness. Of course, the most important step to take is to spend time developing your relationship with Jesus through Bible study and prayer. He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother, and believe me, He is capable of filling that lonely space inside of you.

Are you a lonely person? With the presence of Christ in our lives, we need not be lonely, no matter how alone we may be.

Why, then, are so many Christians lonely? Because they don't know the presence of Christ in their lives as God intended them to. That could be because there is some sin that keeps them from sweet, intimate fellowship with God. If you're a disobedient Christian, that could be the cause of your loneliness since it's destroying the sense of God's presence in your life.

Many Christians don't know God's presence because they don't spend time with him. If you're not saturating your life with God's Word and prayer, then don't be surprised to discover that you are frequently lonely.

Many are lonely because they refuse to change their thinking about aloneness. They're like the little boy who was afraid of going to bed in the dark. His father said to him, "Son, you don't have to be afraid. Jesus is with you.” And the boy replied, "I know, Dad, but I want someone with skin on.” So often when I share with a lonely person that Jesus can dispel their loneliness, their non-verbal reaction is: "Yes, but that's not the way I want it to be. I want someone with skin on."

Not long after I had come back to God and made him Lord of my life, I was sitting in my office one Wednesday when it occurred to me that I was facing a weekend with no plans! For singles—or at least for me at that time—that was the worst of all fates, and in a slight panic I reached for my phone to start calling friends. And as I started to dial, the Holy Spirit quietly said to me, "Can't you trust me? The weekends are in my control just as much as the other days. You can make it through a weekend alone—WITH ME!"

Somewhat fearfully, I said, "Okay, Lord, I'll prove that you are God of the weekends, too.” So, I made plans to be alone with God for those two weekend evenings. There were some tense moments when I again found myself thinking, "Something must be wrong with me, or I wouldn't be by myself on a Saturday evening.”

But I took my Bible, sat down and asked God to again show me he was God, even of the weekends. I ran into God as my refuge, and I was free. Free from the need to have someone around all the time; free from those self-pitying, self-centered feelings of loneliness. I’m married now—after many years as a single—and I’m just so glad I learned that lesson long ago. God took the fear and the desperateness of loneliness away from me. He wants to do the same for you.