For many of us, this has been a difficult year. As I sat down to write out my Thanksgiving reflections from each month of this last year, my first one listed the hard, heart-rending things. With nearly monthly regularity, there was another difficult struggle to record. I will spare you the details because there is no doubt that your list would look very much the same. However, as I read through the end of the book of Acts, the Lord exchanged my earthly perspective for a heavenly one with one verse. In it, Paul has returned to Jerusalem to report the results of his missionary journey. I found it incredibly convicting what he included in that report, and the things he left out.
And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. Acts 21:19
Paul’s report did not include his stoning in Iconium, when the Jews finally stopped throwing rocks because they thought they had killed him (Acts 14:19). He did not share the dissension that arose with his friend and mentor, Barnabas, that caused them to take the Gospel in two different directions (Acts 15:39). It avoided mentioning his beating and imprisonment in Philippi (Acts 16:23-25). He did not report the riots that ran him out of Thessalonica and Ephesus, nor the multiple prophecies of his upcoming imprisonment awaiting him in Jerusalem. Instead, he rejoiced in the Gentiles God had saved despite the steady persecution and struggles Paul had faced. Paul was not sugarcoating his trials. He saw the hard-fought victories of souls snatched from eternal flames as worth every beating and every stone thrown.
With that in mind, I ripped up my first list of reflection and wrote down the souls that my family had a part in reaching this year, either through prayer and planting seeds, or by direct leading. On my list are six souls who will now spend eternity in heaven. No longer does it look like we fought through a difficult year, but instead, it reflects the amazing victories God gave us despite the trials.
In my mind’s eye, I had envisioned a streamlined transformation that would make me more like Jesus. I would behold the glory of God by reading His Word and praying, and He instantly and painlessly would conform me into the glorious image of His Son. Wouldn’t that be nice if it worked that way? However, Jesus never promised an easy road, nor a trouble-free life. In fact, He promised the opposite.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
Note how Jesus says He has overcome the world. Though Satan thought he destroyed Jesus on the cross, he, in fact, secured Jesus’ opportunity to defeat death, sin, and the grave through His resurrection three days later. Jesus promised it would be the same for those who followed him.
For the last few weeks, we have studied beautiful women of faith from the Bible. It must be noted that none of them became beautiful women of faith without some major trial leading them into stronger faith in God. Their lives reflect the truth of Romans 8:28-30.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
What belongs in the “all things” category for you this year? All includes the regrets, the sinful decisions, the painful struggles, the grief, the missteps, the things done to you, the things you have done to others, even the unbelievable evil that seems unexplainable. There is absolutely nothing that cannot fit within the “all things” in Romans 8:28. So write them down because God will redeem every. single. one.
How, might you ask? Paul continues in that verse that God will work them together for good. What is the definition of good that God is working? That answer is found in the next verse. God has predestined you, His adopted child, to be conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus.
Perhaps next to each “all things” category, you can record how God used that in your life to cut out something that did not look like Jesus. Or perhaps, He wove into your life something that did look like Jesus. How did He strengthen your faith? How did He move your eyes from the temporary to the eternal? Who is going to heaven because you did not quit? Who saw your example and decided to keep going too? Or how did you experience God in your sorrow that drew you more deeply into His love and grace? Who exemplified Jesus and helped you through?
When we look at the struggles through God’s perspective, our heart begins to mold itself a little more into the image of our wonderful Savior.
I hope these thoughts help you look a little differently at your “all things” list of 2025, too. Every day we get a little closer to standing before our Savior face to face. There is no time to lose or no opportunity to waste. Every day we spend “becoming” is a day we will be thankful for when we fall at His feet. Let’s keep living for that day!
His Song in the Night 