Mensa Otabil - A Good Year (10/08/2025)
Well, welcome to a brand new week, the first week of the New Year 2023. As we thank God for His mercy towards us at the beginning of the year, we are confident that He will lead us, He will guide us, and He will bring us to our expected end. I trust the Lord that your year will be fruitful. So, we look at Psalm 65, verse 11: «You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance.» God crowns the year with His goodness.
Now, each year is a puzzle; each year is a mystery. It’s a season we don’t know much about. There are things going to happen that we can’t even imagine. But one thing is very certain: God is in control of our lives, our days, and our year. The scripture we read says that He crowns the year with His goodness. So, no matter what happens this year, that is the certainty we have: that God crowns the year with His goodness.
It doesn’t mean that everything that happens in the year will be good; it doesn’t mean that everything that happens will be pleasant; it doesn’t mean that everything will be as we wish it would be. But we can be certain that God will crown it with His goodness. That simply means God will put all things together and cap it with His goodness. So, we can end the year with the certainty that it’s going to be good because God crowns the year with His goodness.
Then the passage also says that His paths drip with abundance. In other words, every step that God leads us to take, every path that He wants us to walk on, every place that He wants us to tread, the end result, the end product, is that it will lead us to abundance, that we would have fruitfulness, that it will be well with us. God’s ways are not always easy to predict and follow because sometimes He leads us down a path that we may think is thorny, or He leads us on a path that we think is too narrow, or He leads us along a path that we think is too dark.
But whatever the path that God leads us in, it will drip with abundance. So even when we don’t see our way clearly, we know that God will make it fruitful for us, and He will make our paths drip with abundance. That’s the attitude with which we enter the year, and we want to trust Him that He will guide us and order our steps. That also means we have an obligation, and our obligation is to trust the Lord, to trust Him and depend on Him. You may not see the way clearly; He knows the way clearly. You may not understand how things will turn out, but He knows the end from the beginning.
God is not surprised by the events of life, time, and history. God is able to make all things work to His goodness. So we trust Him, we depend on Him, and we trust Him by reading His Word, reading the Bible, staying in the Word of God, and encouraging our hearts with the Word of God. We trust Him by praying, by going to Him in prayer, seeking His face, and casting all our cares upon Him and bringing our burdens to Him.
We trust Him by worshiping Him, by being in church, being among the gathering of other Christians where our faith is nurtured and our lives are enriched. So, if you’re going to trust God, trust Him. If you’re going to trust Him, stay in His Word, stay in prayer, and stay in fellowship with other believers. It is in that atmosphere that we experience all the fullness of the Lord.
I believe you’ve entered a good year. I believe that the paths will drip with abundance for you. I believe that God is going to crown your year with His goodness, and I believe that your family and everything that belongs to you comes under the covering of the Most High God. He has brought you this far; He is going to take you to the rest of the journey. Trust the Lord, and it will be well with you.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, thank You for this new year. Crown the year with Your goodness and make me fruitful. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.» Well, I’m going to catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.