With a new year upon us it can be a a good idea to find your “word of the year.” For 2021, my word is “yet.”
I was reminded last year to focus on what we have and not on what we’ve lost. It was a hard year for so many. Today, with the sinful world continuing to exhibit it’s need for a savior we should always contemplate the incredible gift of Jesus and the salvation He has brought to us. If you will indulge me, I’d like to do a little Bible word study with you.
I began looking at the word “yet” in Scripture (used about 400 times) and found it to be apropos to our discussion. (Too bad it wouldn’t work in a book title because one would think I was writing about Bigfoot [Yeti].)
Look at the following passages for a moment (emphasis mine).
Lamentations 3:20-22 (NLT)
“I will never forget this awful time,
as I grieve over my loss.
Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.”
Matthew 7:24-25 (NIV)
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house;
yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”
Habakkuk 3:17-19 (NIV)
“Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.”
Psalm 42:11 (KJV)
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
2 Corinthians 4:16 (NASB)
“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day.”
In every sense Jesus is our “yet.” Everything before Him pales when compared to the after.
John 1: 11-12 (NIV)
“He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
John 11:25 (KJV)
“Jesus said unto her, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.'”
He is our hope.
He is our sustenance.
He is our redeemer.
He is the reason for all we do.
If all seems overwhelming…
If all seems impossible….
Remember, God is not finished….yet.
He is our “Yet.”
Soli Deo Gloria.
