Welcome to the first blog post of 2025! I hope you had a sweet season celebrating Christmas and ringing in a new year.
In the last few days of 2024, the phrase “lay it down” kept coming to mind. It’s been a while since I’ve done something like choose a word for the year. But I felt like God was impressing that particular phrase on my heart, so I’ve adopted it as my theme for 2025.
I’m not sure what it’s going to mean, like what I might be asked to lay down in 2025. But this is the Bible passage that I thought of as I considered those three words.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ~Matthew 11:28-30
Lay it down. That scares me a little because what I think of first is surrendering things I may hold dear. But I also know there are bad habits, maybe obligations or relationships, and definitely recurring sins that I need to lay down.
How about you? Could there be some things you might need to lay down in the coming months? I already have a list of five things it would be good for me to lay down. See if any of them resonate with you or come up with your own list of things to lay down in 2025.
5 Things We Can Lay Down in 2025
1. People-pleasing
Do we say “yes” to things just so that someone will like us? Are we seeking affirmation and acceptance from other people or do we allow God to meet those needs?
As we (meaning me 🙂 find our identity in who we are as children of God, we learn to live for His approval. We’re confident in who we are and don’t need to perform to gain other people’s favor.
However, we do want to be helpful and show empathy and kindness. But we do it as unto the Lord, following his command to love our neighbor, not with the motive for them to like us.
2. Expectations
In this case, I mean expecting others to behave a certain way.
Here’s an example. We expect that our family will buy us a big, meaningful gift for Mother’s Day. We don’t mention it to anyone, kind of expecting them to read our minds. It’s not something that they do every year. We have no indication that they’ve even thought about the idea. But then we’re disappointed when Mother’s Day comes and goes without that happening.
I can have unrealistic expectations of other people and, at times, of myself. Laying those down will be a good goal for this year.
3. Doing anything in our own strength
How often do we set out to accomplish a task, teach a class, or face a conflict without asking God for his help? This year, I want to be so much more mindful of asking God for his strength and assistance in whatever I’m doing.
4. Critical thoughts and words
I can get wrapped up in my head thinking about what that person said or how they treated me. I can run down that person who, in my opinion, doesn’t measure up to what I think they should be.
Let’s lay down any thoughts that are critical of other people. Let’s ask God (because we can’t do it in our own strength) to free us from that. And when those thoughts start – because they will – let’s pull out a Scripture or a praise song and change the narrative in our minds.
Many Bible verses encourage us to guard what we say. If we get going with those critical thoughts, it’s easy for them to turn into words that are critical of others.
5. Pride
Proverbs 13:10 says, “Only by pride cometh contention…” Arguments and disagreements have one single source. Our pride. Sometimes that’s a hard truth to hear!
Pride is a constant enemy of mine, but as much as possible, I’d like to lay it down in 2025.
It’s impossible to know all that God might ask us to lay down in 2025, but I pray that our hearts will be open and sensitive to his leading.
Each month I plan to update this post with what I’ve needed to lay down. Let me know if there’s anything you know you’d like to lay down this year!
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