Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” – Daniel 3:16–18 (NIV)
What a Year
I don’t know what 2024 was like for you. It may have been a great year soaring higher than ever before. It may have been one of the most challenging you’ve ever endured. No matter how you evaluate the flavor of the last year, reality would say that there were extremes: joy and pain. More likely, Charles Dickens was right: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
If your year was filled with blessing and answered prayer, there’s every reason to choose gratitude. If your year was filled with pain, grief, a difficult diagnosis, or perhaps just no answers to a pesky headache that won’t go away no matter the doctors have tried, there is still hope and there are many reasons to choose gratitude.
Let’s try this one: You’re still here – you’ve endured when you felt like giving up.
Looking Up
On the Sunday before Christmas, I walked our church through the darkest part of the Christmas story where Herod ordered the murder of the baby boys of Bethlehem. It raises some of the hardest questions humanity might ask about evil, suffering, and the role of God in this world. I reminded us that light will indeed triumph one day over darkness. God saved his Son in Bethlehem from the murderous plans of Herod so that one day God’s Son would die outside Jerusalem to end evil, suffering, sin, and death forever.
While we live between what God has started and what God will one day finish, light triumphs over darkness in even the smallest steps of faith. In fact, light triumphs over darkness every time I choose faith in Jesus when it would be easier not to. Every time I choose confidence over uncertainty, belief over doubt, trust over suspicion, and hope over cynicism.
Looking Ahead
Your faith and mine might look different in changing contexts. For some of us, faith looks like trusting God enough to begin again in 2025. Maybe for you, faith looks like trusting Jesus for forgiveness and salvation for the very first time. For others, faith looks like taking one step forward because it’s too overwhelming to focus on anything else. Faith can also look like faithfulness in moments where we might say like Daniel’s three friends facing the fiery furnace, “I’ll be faithful even if God doesn’t deliver me.” Often, faith looks like abiding, resilient trust in Jesus no matter the circumstances we face.
I don’t know about you, but I need to be stronger in 2025. I’ve taught before in Letters to My Friends in Pain that there are Five Choices for a More Resilient Life:
- A Clear Identity as God’s Loved Child
- A Clear Why – Embracing God’s Plan for Your Life Despite the Pain
- A Clear Source of Strength Found in Your Walk with Jesus
- A Clear Support Network – Real Community with Vulnerability, Trust, Belonging, and Care
- A Clear Path Forward – Taking the Right Next Step.
Pain is very real, but your life does not have to be defined by your pain, grief, or greatest suffering. Your year ahead can be a year of tenacious faith that leans in during hard times to wait for what Jesus does next.
If you have questions, I’d love to help.
To purchase Letters to My Friends in Pain: https://a.co/d/6JIjmEa