Q:
This past year has been a horrible one for my family and me—financial reverses, a lost job, illnesses, you name it. People keep telling me to look up because next year is bound to be better, but how do they know? I'd like to be an optimist, but how can I when so much has gone wrong?
A:
Life isn’t always fair, nor is it always easy—not at all. Sometimes, things happen to us that we didn’t want to happen, and that we can’t fully explain. In the midst of his suffering, Job cried out, “Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7).
But one of the Bible’s greatest truths is this: God never abandons us when life becomes hard. We may abandon Him, but He does not turn His back on us. He is always with us and wants to help us, even when life is difficult and everything seems to go wrong. When Christ lives in our hearts, we have His promise that nothing “in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
This is why I urge you to commit not only this year but your life to God. God loves you; He loves you so much that His Son was willing to die for you. Nothing you and I will ever experience can begin to compare with the suffering Jesus endured for us. By a simple prayer of faith commit yourself and your future to Him.
Then reach out to Him every day. I can’t promise all your problems will be over—but I do know this: It’s far better to face them with Christ than to face them alone. Make this your best year ever, by committing it to Christ and then learning to walk with Him every day.