My family has a New Year’s Eve tradition of having a fun night of games, sometimes Karaoke lol and an evening of worship and sharing with one another the promises from God’s Word for the upcoming year.

It’s one of my favorite times of the year. We get to reflect, reset and ready ourselves for the next 12 months. It’s a time to be together as a family – kids, dogs and all – and simply take time to focus on adoring Jesus and remember all He brought us through.

None of us would’ve imagined the experiences we’ve lived through the past few years. Many have suffered loss of jobs, relocated, experienced relational breakups and perhaps in yours, as in my family, there were back to back losses of loved ones. Just when I felt I could come up for air, one of my dear friends took her life.

Ugh! It’s devastating and heartbreaking to wrestle through the grief, questions, uncertainties and trying to make sense of the losses, yet in all the wreckage and mystery – there is Jesus!

My heart kept pouring out to Him in vulnerable conversations and I felt anchored to His hope, because He’s seen it all and carried it all – everything – on Himself, at the cross! (Isaiah 53:4-5)

He is in the fire with us. It doesn’t matter what kind of hopeless situation or trauma you’re going through, call out to Him, sit with Him, cry with Him, ask Him questions. He is kind, approachable and so willing to love, heal and be your everything. The Bible doesn’t talk about the absence of problems, but it’s very clear that Jesus walks with us, in those trials and gives us the power and strength to live in this temporal world, empowered with His truth, peace, joy and compassion!

As I read Philippians 2:5-10 today, I was in awe of the magnitude of His love, in that He stooped down to become flesh, emptied Himself taking the form of a bond servant and humbled Himself becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross. He did it all for you and me. What a glorious hope we have in Christ, that nothing and no one in this vanishing-like-a-vapor, world could ever diminish or destroy! 

It is that foundation we build our lives, our hopes, our relationships and our future. Because of the inseparable love of Jesus, 2023 and the years to come, cannot shake us from that position of faith and peace.

As you go about this year and whether you keep or break your new year’s resolutions, remind your soul to choose faith, choose trust, choose healing, choose joy and choose the presence and voice of Jesus, every day of the 2023 adventure!

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