God is good, all the time! And all the time, God is good!
As human beings, we have a shortfall. We often forget our recent past, especially when we get busy. From time to time, however, it is important to take stock of our lives and especially our relationships. There is no greater relationship, as we know, as our relationship with God through His son, Jesus Christ.
As we start a new year, I would like to share with you some of the many ways God has brought blessings upon blessings in 2025, with the expectation that His blessings are available in 2026 as well.
The caveat however is this… God’s great blessings are upon those who walk faithfully beside Him and follow His Word (the Bible, our manual of instruction).
As the popular old hymn records, we need to Trust and Obey, When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, What a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey! Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey!
Psalm 126:1-3 tells us this: 1 When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, (where they were in captivity for 70 years) it was like a dream! 2 We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.” 3 Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy!
At our church, we recently took a journey of remembrance together to give thanks to God for His blessings. So we counted them up (yes – another hymn goes here…..COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS NAME THEM ONE BY ONE, count your blessings see what God has done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your many blessings, see what God has done!).
All together we counted at least 100 blessings and 100 answered prayers in 2025! We saw the goodness of God all over our lives, our families, our health, our church. Yes, there were also hardships and loss along the way. Hardships and loss are a part of life and faith. Hardships teach us to depend on God. Loss reminds us that life is short and that we are here to seek God, find God, serve God and love God and our neighbors.
Eternity is forever. Life is short. Life is our opportunity to learn to trust in God before the end comes. If we fail that simple test, we are bound for an existence without God, without hope, without love, without joy – in other words: Hell.
God does not call us to dwell in the land of sadness and disappointments. We serve a God who is active in our lives! Sometimes His work is obvious, sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes we may even feel alone. But the HANDS of GOD are always present!
Look at your hands – these are the hands of God to the world. Stomp your feet! Those are the feet of God to the world. We serve as His hands and His feet to those around us.
Back in that verse in Psalm 126 where it says, “What AMAZING THINGS” the Lord has done for us,” the Hebrew word for “Amazing things” is “Gadal”. Gadal means to make great, to magnify, to do something extraordinary.
Friends, our God specializes in the extraordinary! He takes ordinary people like you and me and does extraordinary things through us and for us!
What are those things you may ask?
First of all, the Lord has done amazing things in our healings! In our church during 2025 we prayed together for many folks in our community and God has healed them. Anita had successful heart surgery, Iona had her eyes restored, Cameron had a good surgery after a football injury, Danielle’s cancer was successfully removed and no radiation needed. Pat had successful surgery, as did Shell and Dianne and Tim. Dickie is doing better now, Tawns foot has healed up, Stephanie defeated her cancer and Phil had a good bypass operation. Ken’s vertigo is gone and Kay’s eye surgery went well.
These are just a few of the many, many answers to prayer! But wait – didn’t the doctors do this?
My friends, the doctors may do the cutting, the nurses may sew you up, but it is our gracious God who heals us! Even when you cut your finger – God is the one who brings healing!
We learned that depression was lifted, remission is here, forgiveness was shared and received from God too. Emotional healings took place, and though many of us spent time on our backs, we were “lying down in green pastures” so that God could get us to the place of finally LOOKING UP to Him instead of looking at our own problems and insecurities.
Secondly, God has done AMAZING THINGS in our provisions!
Philippians 4:19 promises that “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” and we’ve witnessed this truth repeatedly this year.
Several of you faced severe financial hardships this year. Some has needed to find jobs, others had unusual circumstances to face, But GOD has never failed you, nor forsaken you!
Greg got a new job he needed, Katie got an internship to complete for training, Jamie found a new job, Jenn and Brent got a new home. New jobs, bills paid, homes sold, and homes found!
Our church even received a MATCHING GIFT of $25,000 from an anonymous donor to start a building fund! Praise God for His provision. We are well under way towards matching that now (our deadline is March 31st) and we have begun praying about what God wants us to do with this.
David in the Psalms stated this in Psalm 37: The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. 24 Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.
25 Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread.
You see, walking with the Lord has MANY BENEFITS! Walking without the Lord is risky living.
Finally, the Lord has done AMAZING THINGS in our Spiritual Growth and Ministries!
We are not a large church, but 2025 has been a year of preparing to grow. God calls ALL CHURCHES to prepare to grow. Paul the Apostle said in I Corinthians 3. “I have planted, Apollos watered, BUT GOD GIVES THE INCREASE!”
In 2025 we have seen lives spiritually transformed! People have been saved, baptized and joined our fellowship. We began our year preaching and learning about “The Healthy Church” (you can hear these messages on our website podcast (CraigValleyBaptist.com) and then asked ourselves What is a Baptist? We learned about our WORLDVIEWS, and spent time learning how to DEPEND ON GOD. In the new year we hope to learn more about WALKING WITH THE LORD through discipleship.
In ministries we were blessed to send kids to summer camp (Camp Eagle), to ship out 375 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes (many from your church included), we handed out 200 Bibles during Trunk or Treat, hundreds of gospel tracts at the Ag Fair and Fall Festival and other times, and we fed over 18,000 meals (yes that is correct!) through our Food Pantry, Bible Buddies and School Backpack programs!
All our teens who attend on Wednesday received a free Bible and our VBS was very successful.
We also distributed some 200 winter coats to neighbors here and in the mountains of NC.
Bottom line – we are sharing the LOVE OF GOD with our community and the world, which is our calling as Christians.
THIS IS THE LORD’s DOING! Psalm 118:23-24: “This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Friends, as we’ve recounted these testimonies of God’s faithfulness, we must recognize an important truth: “This is the LORD’s doing.” It wasn’t luck, coincidence, or positive thinking that brought healing, provision, and growth. It was the sovereign, loving hand of our God. He’s not a distant deity who wound up the world like a clock and walked away. He’s intimately involved in the details of our daily existence.
But recognition must lead to response. The psalmist doesn’t just observe God’s work—he responds with rejoicing and gladness.
With every testimony shared here today, every blessing, every answered prayer, WE ARE RISING UP!
This all points not to human achievement, but to divine intervention. God calls us to share these testimonies with others, not to pat ourselves on the back but to remind others of His goodness. Finally, we live with THE EXPECTATION that God will do it again in 2026!
If you are not walking with the Lord right now, we invite you to come and join us and see what God will do in your life and ours together in the new year! God is good, all the time!
Craig Valley Baptist Church, next to Bibo’s at 171 Salem Ave in New Castle, welcomes you to visit and share in the forgiveness we have experienced. We meet Sundays at 11AM, with an upbeat service of music, sharing and preaching. You don’t need to dress up, and you won’t be asked to speak, so just come and hang out and meet new and old friends! Questions? Call 540-864-5667 or email pastor@cv-bc.com.
-Pastor Scott Gabrielson