In This New Year, Remember We Cannot Stay Where We Are & Go With God

January 8, 2025

As I enter another New Year, I am reminded of something Henry T. Blackaby wrote in his book, Experiencing God. He wrote, “You cannot stay where you are and go with God.”

If we are going to “go with God” in this New Year, we cannot stay where we are. We must be willing to move beyond what we know. We must be willing to follow where God leads and to surrender our plans for His. If we are going to experience God anew in our lives in 2025, we must “Trust in the Lord with all [our] heart and lean not on [our] own understanding; in all [our] ways submit to him,” and we can be assured that God will show up in our lives and “will make [our] paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

A decade ago, I remember getting the phone call to leave my church in Seaford, Delaware and go to Rock Hall, Maryland.  Deb and I jumped in the car and drove and drove and drove.  We turned on to Rock Hall Road, drove by fields of geese, and came into the small, waterman’s town. We visited the three churches, each one smaller than the last, beautiful stained glass surrounded by a town suffering economically, the glory day of the waterman long past.

Driving back home that night, I struggled.  This could not be where God was sending me.  I was pastoring a large church, a new building, a growing church of over 300 people, a church that hosted workshops to help other churches, and now God was sending me to a three-point charge, three churches each over a century old, in a town, literally “at the ends of the earth.” 

I got discouraged.  This could not be God’s plan.  I called my supervisor and told him about how I was struggling with this call, the possibility of going to this new appointment in Rock Hall, after all I had experienced and accomplished withGod’s help in Seaford. Over the next ten days, I prayed and struggled about this move. I wanted to stay right where I was, where I was comfortable and felt validated as a pastor.

Deb and I finally felt God say that we had to trust Him. If we were wrong to go, God would know we were going with the right motivation. We were trying to obey God; therefore, God would turn what may not have been intended into something “good.” If we failed to go and it was God’s call, His will, we would miss out on His blessings, on our family walking with God. Therefore, we went.

And it was a tremendous culture shock and adjustment.  The nearest Walmart was an hour away.  But God changed our lives.  Looking back, we can see why God called us to Rock Hall and how God used that appointment to bless our family.  It was in Rock Hall that our son, Nate, took over the praise band and grew in his music and calling to lead worship.  It was in Rock Hall, when Deb and I were teaching Experiencing God, I felt led and was encouraged to go back to school and begin my doctoral work in leadership.  It was my experience in Rock Hall, helping three churches work together collaboratively in ministry and mission, which became the motivation for my thesis.  Even the hardships we faced there helped us to become stronger, to grow closer as a family, and to be more prepared for when God called us, four years later, to Rising Sun, Maryland.

Not only would we have missed out on the many blessings God had for us, the many lessons God wanted to teach us, but we would have missed out on some very special and life-long friendships. Furthermore, if we had not gone, perhaps some of those who came to Christ, who were comforted, who experienced a deeper relationship with God, would have also missed out.

As we look back, we realized we could not have gone with God and stayed where we were. Living our faith takes risk. It requires trust. We would not have experienced God anew, all God had for each of us, if we were not willing to change, to surrender, to move.

Whether it was selling our home and entering ministry, heading off to seminary, jumping on a plane and spending two weeks ministering to kids in Peru, flying to Minneapolis, Minnesota and starting a doctoral program, visiting a prisoner and hearing the large iron doors close behind me, sitting next to someone as they lay dying, asking God to help me preach a message I felt was totally inadequate, or retiring early to enter a new season of ministry and to live in a camper, it has always been the times I have taken the greatest risks when I have had the greatest experiences of God.

What about you? Where will you “go with God” in 2025?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.