“Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2Tim.2:1). “It’s good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace” (Heb.13:9)
Lord Jesus, “finishing strong”—a phrase applied to all kinds of sports teams, but one that is also perfect for ending a year, and beginning a new one. For some of us, 2023 can’t be over too soon; for others, it may have been the best year ever. For all of us, finishing strong in your grace is appropriate—maybe even heart-resuscitating and life-saving.
What are other options? Well, we could finish 2023 paralyzed by fear, but who, given the option, would joyfully chose that? Or we could finish the year filled with resentment—which might feel good in the moment, but as 2024 emerges, it will prove to be the thief that robbed our hearts, health, and homes. Another option to finishing strong in grace is ending the year with ramped-up cravings.
Craving intimacy, longing for approval, the hunger to matter, filling the vacuum, medicating the pain, silencing guilt and shame, finding peace—somehow, somewhere… Jesus, all 7 of these—each one of them is good, and each needs to be honored. To say your grace alone is sufficient for each is simply to say only you, Jesus, are the resolution to each.
You made us for yourself, Jesus, and we will remain restless until we rest in you—for the first or “umpteenth” time. To finish 2023 strong in grace won’t be to finish strong is something, but Someone—in you, Lord Jesus, in you. It is you that we earnestly crave, and it is us that you intensely love, Jesus. Bring these two realities together in a fresh and profoundly freeing way. Thank you, and So Very Amen.