Sumgmu’s Monthly Message, January 2025

“And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country” (John F. Kennedy: Inaugural Address). Before you ask what God can do for you, ask what you can do for God and God’s church.

Happy New Year! As we begin another new year, we greet each other so that we may have a good year. We also pray to God for God’s guidance during 2025. When praying, we ask God for good health, financial security, success at work and school, good relationships with others, and so on. However, a few of us do ask ourselves what we can give to God during the new year. What would you give to God?

As soon as we begin a new year, we encounter wise men at the Epiphany of the Lord (January 6). They brought gifts to the Christ child: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We need to learn from them the heart of giving to the baby Jesus.

I have witnessed some Christians leaving their churches or giving up their Christian faith. What caused them to make these decisions? There are a lot of reasons for them to do so. As a pastor and as a Christian, I want to reduce the number of Christians who leave their churches.

Here is one solution for us to stay in our churches and stick to Jesus Christ: Ask not what God can do for you but ask what you can do for God. The ways of God are often different from the ways of the world. Thus, when we are more interested in asking God to do something for us, we are easily disappointed. The ways of God often require us to have patience.

On the other hand, when we focus on asking what we can do for God, we will never be disappointed. Again, the ways of God are different from ours. When we are more interested in what we can do for God, God will give us even what we have not asked for.

Do you remember King Solomon in the Old Testament? God came to him in a dream and told him to ask for whatever he wanted. Solomon, in humility, asked for the wisdom to govern God’s people because he knew he could not do it alone. In the end, he received what he had not asked, both riches and honor all his life; no other king shall compare with him (1 Kings 3:1-15).

Happy New Year! I pray that you will receive from God this year even what you have not asked for by asking first what you can do for God and God’s church. Amen.

Sungmu Lee