Welcome to the 2024-2025 MomCo. Theme
The wilds are unexpected places where the best things begin. Hope is often born in the wilds. Frequently in the Bible, the wilderness is where God transforms us, raises us as leaders, and prepares us to live passionately and with purpose.
It’s where God wrestles with Jacob and gives him a new name.
It’s where Moses is called to rise as a leader even though he feels inadequate.
It’s where Hagar is reminded that God sees her.
It’s where the nation of Israel was brought to prepare for the Promised Land.
It’s where David penned the Psalms.
It’s where God protects, provides for and prepares Elijah.
It’s where John the Baptist took on the moniker of “a voice calling the wilderness.”
It’s a testing-ground where Jesus faces off with temptation before his ministry began.
Audacious, unbridled purpose and possibility are found when we are willing to go through some discomfort to follow God to a new place. This is the message that came to God’s people who were exiled in Babylon. They were living in constant disappointment, corruption, division, and exhaustion, yet Isaiah’s words invite them to get passionate about their future. Babylon is not an end but a beginning. God was doing something new, but it was going to look different than they thought it would.
Forget the former things … do not dwell on the past
God’s people had a reputation for settling for just getting by. When God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness, providing manna from heaven, the people complained and wanted to return to what they considered the “good old days.” They wanted to go back to Egypt, where they were enslaved in horrific conditions, but at least they had stability and shelter and knew what to expect. They were stuck longing for a former situation that while it was miserable, it was known.
A new season needs a new strategy. New seasons call for a new level of trust in God. This is why God reminds us not to dwell on the past. We can own and learn from it but don’t need to get stuck there. We can’t expect past victories to sustain us (Judges 6:13). We also shouldn’t let past failures paralyze us. All of our experiences so far are breadcrumbs leading us to what’s ahead.
do you not perceive it?
No matter how hopeless a situation seems, God specializes in the impossible. This is a tremendous source of hope. Starting in Genesis 18:14, God asks Abraham, who is having a hard time believing that he and his wife would have a baby after waiting for so many decades, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” Throughout the Bible we are reminded of this same fact – nothing is too difficult for God.
Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?
JEREMIAH 32:27