2025 is already a mess?

As we settle into the second month of the year, glad that January had some speed on it’s sleeves, a lot of people are already looking into the rest of the year with gloomy faces and teary eyes.

In January alone, two people very dear to me lost their close family members to the cold hands of death. In January, wild fires and fuel explosions have rocked cities, homes destroyed, lives (young and old) brought to an abrupt end.

So, how do you say 2025 was a great year? Isn’t it messed up already? How do the grieving and bleeding hearts find laughter again or sing songs of rejoicing? Where do they find the courage to once again pick up their bag of resolutions for the year and run with their written vision?

How do hurting believers find strength to live again and enjoy the goodness and greatness embedded in this new season despite their brokenness?

The answer: GOD.

As much as it sounds cliché – you’re probably thinking, surely there must be something deeper or extra – God is still the balm of Gilead that heals hurting hearts.

Go up to Gilead to get ointment, O virgin daughter of Egypt! But your many medicines will bring you no healing.

Jeremiah 46:11 (NLT)

Perfect health and cures can only come from God. The wounds in your heart, the cuts deep in your soul and bruises on your body or organs are crying out for the Balm of Gilead.

I know it’s hard. It feels like trusting God isn’t worth it, but I can assure you that God is not the cause of your pain, and if He allowed it, them it was not to destroy you.

God is the Comforter that you need now, so hold on tightly to Him even if all you can grab on to is just the helm of His garment. He alone brings comfort in the dimensions and proportions that you need them. And unlike sympathisers and well wishers, He isn’t going to leave you when night falls. He is ever present and ever constant.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

John 14:16 (KJV)

His joy alone can strengthen you to walk through gloomy seas and not be swallowed up by them, “…for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

He is your peace giver; the One who has overcome the world and regardless of storms hitting our boat always still has the authority to declare; “…peace be still…” (Mark 5:39) and at the sound of His voice, every wind will cease giving way for great calm. (Mark 5:39).

God is the one you should turn to. He is the one that can heal you and restore you. With Him, you will recover all your loses in measures not limited to your human expectations.

January may have come with gloom and heavy tears, but don’t walk that road of healing and letting go alone.

Hold God firmly and stay with Him.