Leah Names Judah: "This Time, I Will Praise the Lord"

Sermon from Sunday, January 4, 2026, by Elder Junias Anané, Efficient Church.

Introduction

Some years begin with an empty heart. You took stock of 2025, and you counted what you are lacking faster than what you received. A husband who no longer looks at you, a wife who does not understand, a job that is going nowhere, a child who has not come, a recognition that no one has given you. And yet, on this first Sunday of the year, the Word comes to meet you right where you are.

The theme for January's fasting and prayer was set on December 31: "This time, I will praise the Lord." These are the words Leah speaks in Genesis 29:31-35 when she gives birth to her fourth son, Judah. Three times before, she had given her children names that pleaded for her husband's love. The fourth time, she changes her posture. She stops waiting for Jacob and turns to the Lord instead.

This sermon is not a theoretical talk about praise. It is a call to stop waiting for your situation to change before you worship. Because your praise is meant to bring about the miracle, not merely to celebrate it afterward.

Sermon outline

1. A first Sunday of thanksgiving

Junias Anané opens the service with 1 Thessalonians 5:18: "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." If you are alive on this first Sunday of 2026, it is because God allowed it, because the Lord carried you through all of 2025, and because he stayed with you.

The sermon also recalls Hebrews 13:14-16: "Through Jesus, let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name." A sacrifice of praise means praising him regardless of circumstance. Not only when everything is going well.

2. Count your blessings before you count your lack

Even before entering the text of Genesis, the preacher invites the congregation to a concrete exercise: count the blessings received from God in 2025. In your health, in your family, at work, in your home. The spiritual problem for so many Christians at the start of a new year is that they cannot manage to praise God because they are focused on what they have not received.

3. Five spiritual blessings that come before praise

The preacher then walks through several passages describing everything God has already done for you, ahead of any request:

• He gave up his Son for you (Romans 8:31-32): if the Lord is for you, who can be against you?
• He is a Father who gives good gifts (Matthew 7:9-11): your heavenly Father is able to give you infinitely more than your earthly father can offer.
• He bore your sufferings and your pains (Isaiah 53:4-5): by his wounds you are healed.
• He casts your sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:18-20): what God is like you, who pardons iniquity and delights in mercy?
• He became a curse so that you could receive the blessing (Galatians 3:13-14): Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Junias Anané calls this a divine exchange: your punishment fell on him, your pains went onto him, your sins fell on him, your curses fell on him. Everything you were meant to bear, he is the one who bore it.

4. Genesis 29: the chaotic household of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel

The core text is Genesis 29:31-35. Leah is not loved by Jacob. The Lord sees this and opens her womb. She bears four sons, and each time, the name she gives the child tells her story:

• Reuben: "The Lord has seen my affliction."
• Simeon: "The Lord has heard that I am not loved."
• Levi: "This time my husband will become attached to me."

Three children, three names that plead for Jacob's love. Three times Leah uses her children to make her case to her husband, says the preacher. Meanwhile, Rachel is doted on but barren and bitter; she envies her sister so much that she grabs Jacob and says, "Give me children, or I die!" This household is crumbling under frustration because no one appreciates what they have received, only what they lack.

5. A hard word to husbands: love your wife in deed and word

Junias Anané pauses here for a strong pastoral aside, addressed first to the men. God sees and God hears when you fail to love your wife. If you treat her with harshness, distance, or indifference, know three things:

1. God can compensate by making her fruitful in your place: promotions at work, favor, income, doors opening for her that do not open for you. And your pride will be humbled.
2. According to 1 Peter 3:7, you become an obstacle to your own prayers. Your prayers do not rise to heaven if your wife is groaning beside you.
3. When you die, God himself takes your place beside your widow and your orphans. No one else can play that role for you. It is a responsibility before God, not simply a matter of pride.

The principle applies both ways: there are also wives who do not love their husbands and who need to love them. But that does not remove the weight of responsibility on the husband's side.

6. Leah's turning point: Judah, "this time, I will praise the Lord"

Verse 35: "She conceived again and bore a son, and said, 'This time I will praise the Lord.' Therefore she called his name Judah."

For the first time, Leah no longer mentions Jacob in the name she gives her child. She stops focusing on what she lacks. Her praise no longer depends on her husband. If Jacob cannot love her, she has the love of the Lord who sees her, hears her, and comforts her. This turning point will shape her destiny and the lineage of Judah, the very line from which the Messiah will be born.

7. Praise as a spiritual garment

The sermon quotes Isaiah 61:3: Christ was anointed to give the afflicted a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Leah took off the garment of depression to put on the garment of praise. According to Psalm 33:1, "praise befits the upright": it is the spiritual garment that suits you best, the one that makes you shine.

8. Do not flee the secret place when things are not going well

Junias Anané shares a personal testimony: when a situation feels overwhelming, when he falls into weakness, something pulls him away from the secret place. As if God were responsible for his pain. That is a lie from the enemy. Hebrews 4:16 invites you to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, not to pull away from it. It is the sick who need a doctor. If you are sad, angry, fallen, guilty: run into God's presence like the prodigal son. Your Father is already waiting with open arms.

Key takeaways

1. Your praise does not depend on your situation. Leah praised the Lord before Jacob ever came to love her. Your praise is meant to bring about the miracle, not merely to celebrate it afterward.
2. Focus on what you have received, not on what you lack. Rachel had the love, Leah had the fertility: both were miserable because they kept looking at the empty space, never at what was full.
3. The divine exchange is already accomplished. Your punishment, your pains, your sins, your curses fell on Christ. Your entry into 2026 is not conditioned on your performance; it rests on his cross.
4. Love in deed and in word. Man, if you want heaven to open over your prayers, love your wife as a precious being who inherits eternal life together with you.
5. Do not flee the secret place when you are weak. It is precisely when you have fallen, when you are sad or guilty, that you must run to God, not pull away from him.

Personal application

Take some quiet time this week, with your Bible open to Genesis 29, and ask yourself these questions honestly:

• What are three concrete blessings God gave you in 2025 that you have never taken the time to name before him?
• What lack are you so focused on that you are missing the blessings already present? Can you write it down, then lay it at the foot of the cross?
• Is there someone in your household you treat with the harshness Jacob showed Leah? What concrete action can you take this week to love them in deed?
• When something goes wrong, what is your default reaction: running to the secret place, or pulling away from it? What do you want to change?
• Can you, today, speak Leah's words out loud: "This time, I will praise the Lord," even before you have seen the change you are waiting for?

Verses cited

• Genesis 29:31-35: core text, the birth of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah
• 1 Thessalonians 5:18: give thanks in all circumstances
• Hebrews 13:14-16: let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise
• Romans 8:31-32: if God is for us, who can be against us?
• Matthew 7:9-11: your heavenly Father gives good gifts
• Isaiah 53:4-5: he bore our sufferings
• Micah 7:18-20: he casts all our sins into the depths of the sea
• Galatians 3:13-14: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
• Isaiah 61:3: a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair
• Psalm 33:1: praise befits the upright
• 1 Peter 3:7: so that nothing may hinder your prayers
• Hebrews 4:16: let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace

FAQ

What does the name Judah actually mean?

Judah comes from the Hebrew root yadah, meaning "to praise, to give thanks." The name Leah gives her fourth son literally translates her declaration: "This time, I will praise the Lord." It is from this tribe that King David would be born, and later Jesus Christ, the Lamb whom John describes as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah."

Why does God make Leah fruitful rather than Rachel?

Genesis 29:31 says: "When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren." God compensates for the lack of love Leah received by giving her a fruitfulness that Rachel, though loved, does not have. It is a reminder that God sees what you are lacking on a human level and that he can bless you in another dimension.

How can I praise God when my situation is not changing?

The sermon does not ask you to deny your suffering. It invites you to take off the garment of despair and put on a garment of praise, through a concrete choice. Start by naming five blessings you have received out loud, open a psalm (Psalm 103, for instance), and speak Leah's words. Praise is not a feeling; it is a sacrifice. You offer it before you see the miracle, and you will find that it changes your heart first, and then your situation.