Let me tell you, dear people, 2025 was quite a year! I still can’t believe I got through it, but I did, and if you are reading this, so did you! We have so much to be grateful for!
It was a year of learning. Learning to work with women as a leader in a women’s ministry. Learning to trust God for work. Learning to let go when I had to. Learning to listen to God again.
To learn, I had to say goodbye to something that I have always held dear. Control. I have always wanted to be in charge of my environment, and to know what’s coming next. That’s not too much to ask, is it? But in God’s grand scheme for my life, that does not and will never work.
I held on dearly. I did not want to let go. But the more I held on, the worse things became. I was grumpy, sad, and irritable, and I could feel a sense of hopelessness creeping in. Everyone I shared this with said I needed a break, I needed more time for myself, or I needed to take better care of myself. I tried all these things, and for a while I would feel amazing, but after a few days I would be back to my inbuilt default settings. I would hop back into the driver’s seat of my life, and I loved it. Sadly, that control was destroying me.
God, where would I be without you? You stepped in through a very close person who asked me, “Why do you try to control things that only God can control?” At first, I took this statement very personally, but after thinking about it, I understood and accepted the truth in that statement. I was trying to be the god of my life. God had no space to act. And because I was a little god who knew nothing about what God’s perfect plans for me were, I was crumbling to pieces.
That was my first lesson. Don’t bother trying to control what only God can control.
My second lesson is directly related to the first one. Here I was, learning how to give God everything in my life, yet I did not know enough about Him to do so. This is when I felt in my heart that I needed to change how I read the Bible, because I wanted to understand who God really was. I had to learn to listen for His voice and hear Him speak through His word. Please note that I have been reading the Bible ever since I gave my life to Christ many years ago. This time, however, something had to change, because I could not hear His voice. That deafening silence led me to learn how to read, listen, and respond.
I am still learning how to listen. It’s not easy, for example, to read through a list of tribesmen and listen keenly to hear what God is saying, but I am slowly getting the hang of it. Some days are good, and I can hear the message clearly. On other days, I have to do a bit more thinking and reading before I understand what the passage says. The best part is, as long as I am ready to listen, God speaks.
God speaks in many ways. He speaks through people, the still small voice, and circumstances. The Word, however, is the most accessible and reliable means through which He does so. Our job is to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what the Lord is saying, and then meditate on the message. Anyone, even a child, can listen to what God is saying to us from His Word.
This year, my lessons have not been showstoppers. My heart, however, has gone through seasons of refinement, pruning, purging, and cleansing. I have shed many tears as I’ve asked God why this life of faith has to be so difficult. His answer, as we may all agree and have often experienced, was not what I expected. I asked that He would work things out the way I wanted, but He chose to work on my heart instead. I asked to hear the still, small voice that I was used to. He chose to speak through His Word and to train me to read it consistently.
Dear friend, I hope you can look back with gratitude at what God has taught you this year and how He has shaped and transformed you. As we step into another year and say goodbye to this one, keep these two thoughts close to your heart.
Don’t be afraid to let God take full control. Surrender to Him.
Read your Bible. God speaks through it. You just need to listen.
Happy New Year!