Remembering 2025 and Looking Forward to 2026

There is power in remembering the Lord's goodness, especially in the struggle, suffering, and difficulty of life. Today, I'm remembering how Jesus has carried me through the most grievous and horrible year of my life. Yet He has showed up in the most amazing and sometimes quiet ways. 

As I look back, I'm asking two questions: What does remembering what the Lord has done provoke in you and me? And in the midst of what we walk through in this life, what do we think the Lord can provide?

Then, as I look forward, I'm sharing how the Lord has given me the word Joy for this year. Not the kind of head-in-the-sand blind optimism. That's not joy. But delight in Him and who He is. How there is joy and delight in fixing my eyes, mind, and heart on Jesus, following His leading, resting in His love, holding fast to Him in trial, and trusting His will. I pray this episode blesses you as you remember 2025 and look forward to 2026.

Also, check out my favorite books on Instagram! You can also listen to the sermons of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, referenced in this podcast, here. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• Ephesians 3:20-21
• Psalm 51:12
• John 15:11
• Acts 3
• Matthew 6
• Mark 6:7-13
• Hebrews 12:1-3
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13
• John 11:40
• Mark 2:27
• Psalm 30:5
• Psalm 16:11

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Transcript

Speaker: 0:05

"Well, this is the end, Sam Gange, a voice said by his side. And there was Frodo, pale and worn, and yet himself again. And in his eyes there was peace now, neither strain of will, nor madness, nor any fear. His burden was taken away. Here was the dear master of the sweet days of the Shire. Master cried Sam, and fell upon his knees. In all that ruin of the world, for the moment he felt only joy, great joy. The burden was gone. His master had been saved. He was himself again. He was free. Then Sam caught sight of the maimed and bleeding hand. Your poor hand, he said, and I have nothing to bind it with or comfort it. I would have spared him a whole hand of mine, rather, but he's gone now, beyond recall, gone forever. Yes, said Frodo. But do you remember Gandalf's words? Even Gollum may have something yet to do. But for him, Sam, I could not have destroyed the ring. The quest would have been in vain, even at the bitter end. So let us forgive him, for the quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me, here at the end of all things, Sam."

Speaker: 1:29

That is a passage out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, book three, part three, The Return of the King, after Frodo has finally wrestling with the ring, he has let it go into Mordor, he's let it go into Mount Doom, and Mount Doom is exploding into Mordor, and they're laying on that rock. If you've seen the movies, exhausted and yet, and and completely wasted, seriously, just exhausted and broken and yet relieved. Frodo back to his old self. The strain and the burden of the ring is gone. And I just love that quote at the end. I'm glad you are here with me, here at the end of all things, Sam. And that's obviously how I feel about you, my listeners, because today is New Year's Eve 2025. Can you believe that we have made it? I cannot. There are many, many days in this year where I thought it was never going to end, but here we are together, friends, at the end of all things. Well, the end of 2025, anyway, which I think for some of us we feel like has been the end of all things.

Speaker: 2:39

And before I go any further into this episode, episode 12, I will apologize. I am once again recovering from the crud. And it is just absolutely taken me for a loop. It's like I had a couple of days' reprieve, was able to record the week before Christmas, and then wham, I got completely knocked knocked down again. The Lord was very gracious to me. He gave me some adrenaline and I had some good cold meds to take because on Christmas Day, my mom and my brother and I went to Denver and saw the Denver Nuggets play the Minnesota Timberwolves and beat them in overtime. And it was glorious and it was amazing. And it was the best Christmas. Oh my goodness, it was amazing, and we had so much fun. And then we got home and I promptly collapsed right back into sickness.

Speaker: 3:28

So here we are recording, and I sound a little bit weird, but I know you all will bear with me as we journey together in this last episode of Honey from the Rock for 2025. And I am so glad to be here. And I know it is really common at the end of the year to kind of remember, look back, you know, post-favorite things. I won't lie, I've done that with books that I read this year. And I was thinking about this episode and what do I do because this year has held so much, uh, so much grief and so much loss, and was seeking the Lord and asking him, How do I talk about this year and remember what you've done and also look forward? And then all of a sudden, I was like, okay, Lord, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I am going to remember a few things that the Lord has done, and I am going to look forward to what he has for 2026.

Speaker: 4:25

And so as I am recounting some of these things that the Lord has done, I want to ask you a question. I want to ask you a question. When we remember what the Lord has done, what does that provoke in us? And as I'm sharing some things, I want you to ask yourself that question. As you remember the things that the Lord has done for you, what does it provoke in you? Does it bring back some memories of some hard things you've had to go through? Does it provoke a sense of wonder and awe? Does it provoke a sense of gratitude and thankfulness and worship? Honestly, looking back as I was writing down things that I wanted to share with you, it's provoked all of those things. It's brought back waves of grief, but it's also brought forth a huge wave of gratitude because I honestly don't know how I am standing at the end of this year without the grace of Jesus Christ. I don't know how I've made it here without his kindness and his goodness and his absolute love. And I pray that you all feel the same way as you reflect on what the Lord has done.

Speaker: 5:33

So here are some things that the Lord has done for me. And actually, as I talk about these things, I want to share a brief story because at the beginning of this year, the Lord really impressed upon my heart to pray Ephesians 3, 20 through 21. And I think I've talked about that a few times this year. And just as a refresher, Ephesians 3, 20 through 21 says, Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we could ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. And it was a verse that the Lord really impressed upon my heart to pray. At the beginning of this year, I was stuck in bed. I had had ankle surgery the day after Christmas last year, and was only a week into my recovery at the beginning of the year. And I had quite a bit of recovery still before me. And there were many other things that started to happen. And as I looked towards 2025, you know, as we all do, probably at some point, like with a little bit more hope, what could this year bring?

Speaker: 6:47

The fact that the Lord impressed these verses from Ephesians onto my heart was significant because often when we are put in a place where we have to pray and sometimes confess to the Lord, I don't even know how to pray. Where we're put in places where we realize that what we could think to ask, what we could think to think to go to the Lord for, is so small compared to the vastness of who he is. It's often in the hardest places and in the darkest places and in the most broken places where we realize our lack of power, our lack of authority a lot of times. If we don't have Jesus, if we don't have the Holy Spirit resurrecting within us and rising us up and fitting our hands for war or to pray or to worship, you know, we lack in our sin nature, we lack everything. We have nothing outside of the Lord. And it's humbling. And I think in the most beautiful way, the Lord intends it to be that, that we would be humbled even in the midst of sorrow and grief, that what we can think to ask him, he is overjoyed when we come to him and we seek him out. And yet he is able to do above everything we could think or ask, because what we know is is so small. And yet what we know of the Lord and what his word tells us about him, his character reveal to us is also more than enough. It's it's such a beautiful dichotomy of the kingdom.

Speaker: 8:23

And so it was as I was going into 2025, that was really what the Lord had me, had me praying and and asking. And again, you anticipate it in all sorts of different ways. And then all of a sudden, Jesus in his faithfulness makes that verse, makes whatever verses he's given to us to meditate on and to learn. He he completely blows up what we thought we understood about them. And even though that that has come through so much grief and brokenness and suffering this year, I also am really, really grateful for it. Because it also tied into a question that the Lord asked me at one point this year that I really, really perceived that he was asking me, which is, what do you think I can provide for you? And that's a huge question, especially when you consider things like Mark 6, where he talks about considering the lilies of the field and and, you know, don't worry about what you're going to eat or or the clothes that you will wear. When you think about Jesus sending out the disciples, and he tells them, don't take money, don't take a staff, don't take an outer coat, depend on the generosity of my people when I send you out to preach, or the way that he consistently provided through the breaking of the bread to feed 5,000 men or 4,000 men, and we know it was many, many more people besides that, because there were women and children there. And we think about the provision at the crucifixion, the power of the blood of Jesus poured out, his life poured out, his life laid down for us. We think about the power of the incarnation, him coming down as a baby, him setting aside every right he had as the king of heaven, as the as the beloved and begotten son of God, and making himself vulnerable as a human, entrusting himself to the care of humans. I mean, oh my word, I mean, it's it's it's crazy, it's crazy to think about everything that the Lord has done, and we could not dream up a bit of it. And yet he still delights when we come to him with our needs, with our wants, with our desires, with our questions, with our doubts, with our praises and with our worship.

Speaker: 10:36

And so as I as I walked this out, both these Ephesians verses and the question of the Lord asking me, What do you think I can provide for you? In the in the kindest and in the gentlest way, there was a challenge from the Lord for me in it of, was I going to allow myself to be restricted by my own thoughts, which we often are, right? Our own thoughts, our own emotions, our own memories of how the Lord's provided. And would I actually challenge myself to grow in my faith and look at my situations, what I could see, the darkness of them, the grief of them, the brokenness of them, and still trust that the Lord could do beyond whatever I could ask or think unto his glory for his name's sake, that his story would be told and that I would be a vessel for him to do that through. And so I also want to challenge you with that. Maybe the Lord is asking you today, what do you think I can provide for you? And he's not beating you over the head with it, but he's asking. And it's a challenge of faith, and it's a beautiful challenge of faith.

Speaker: 11:47

And so as I moved through the year, and I've talked about it briefly about the loss of my dad and my sister so close together this year, six weeks apart, and the devastation of that, and and many other things that have come this year, I have gone back to those verses again and again and again because it has been in the brokenness of my grief, in all of the emotions that come with grief and and the nonlinear journey of everything you experience, the disbelief, the anger, the fear, the anxiety, the sorrow, all of it at each stage, and when sometimes at multiple stages hitting you at once, you know, just crying out to Jesus and and really, really seeing and knowing in the depth of my soul in a very visceral way, how much I need the Lord.

Speaker: 12:40

And there's also been a tender calling out from him and also a firm calling out from him here closer to the end of the year. Because, you know, grief is a journey, and I in no way think that the Lord is standing over me, saying, Man, Kence, you better hurry up and get over this. But I will confess to you that there have been some times where I've really let myself wallow in my grief. And in there have been places where I've lost sight of the hope that is available to me in Christ Jesus, right? Paul says that we don't grieve as those who have no hope. And it's not that I doubt where my dad is and where my sister is, not at all. But sometimes the the chasm of grief, the chasm of loss, knowing that they are with the Lord, and yet I'm still here on earth, and the the sorrow of this sometimes just felt too much to bear. And the and I know that it is a place where Jesus has had to carry me, but also it was a place where I I let myself wallow into some despair. And and the Lord's kindness and his graciousness to me was was to challenge me, just daughter, it's time to come out of that. It is it is not time to stop grieving. This grief will never leave me. This sorrow will always color my walk with the Lord now, and he knows that it will color my story and the story of my family. But he will also not let me grieve in despair. He will not let me despair, and that's his graciousness. And there was there was a kindness and a gentleness in his calling out, but there was also a that's enough, that's enough. It rang of what Jesus says to Martha in John 11. Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? And and that the that is such a declaration. And I have seen the glory of the Lord in my life this year. I have seen his name be lifted up and glorified through the hands of his people who have come around my mom and my brother, people who I never would have expected, who have reached out to us and brought us food, or helped my mom with the house, or invited us to play top golf, or just texted to say they were thinking about us and cried with us and walked with us and ministered to us in such beautiful ways. And it's part of that is definitely a part of beyond what I could think or ask, you know.

Speaker: 15:20

Sometimes the Lord's people really surprise you in the best way, and it's been such a gift. And the other thing that the Lord has taught me, which is tied into this, um, it's tied into this Ephesian scripture, is he's teaching me how to rest. Grief has a way of incapacitating you physically. Um, I experienced it a few years ago when my youngest sister passed away. I experienced it many years ago when I went through my hysterectomy, as I told you all about. But this is different. And and just the compacted loss together really, really has thrown me physically for a loop. And it's part of the reason why I think I've gotten really sick, um, basically the whole month of December.

Speaker: 16:06

But in it, one thing that the Lord has shown me through it is that He is stripping away this identity that I took on myself. He did not give it to me, I took it on myself, and that was the identity of productivity and doing things and being in ministry and being active and all of these things made me a valuable asset to his kingdom. And that is not true, and that is something that the Lord is teaching me that rest is a gift, rest in Jesus is a gift, his yoke is a gift. Jesus knew how to follow the will of the Father throughout his earthly ministry here to us to give us the gospel, to give Israel the gospel. And in it, Jesus knew how to rest. He knew how to go away with his father. He knew when he had to be up all night praying, he knew when he needed to be asleep in a boat. Jesus knew how to rest and he knew how to follow the will of the Lord, and he knew that he operated out of his identity as the Son of God. He operated out of his identity as Messiah, as the anointed one, as the sacrifice for the Lord. And the Lord is teaching me that my activity is not what makes me valuable to the kingdom. It's not. And it is, and out of those things, out of being his child, that the desire to obey him and to serve him comes. And we can't do that out of our own strength. We have to rest. And so grief has taught me how to rest. This sickness has taught me how to rest and how to let go of this idea that the Lord loves me when I'm doing, rather than that the Lord loves me when I'm just being.

Speaker: 18:32

And that's not an excuse to be lazy. It's not an excuse to be disobedient. It's not, um, it's not something that I slough off and just say, Well, God's got it. I don't have to do anything. No, but I can't minister and I can't walk in the call of Jesus on my life if I don't learn how to rest in him. And rest is obedience. You know, the Lord calls us to Sabbath. He made the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath. I think I'm quoting that right. If I messed it up, somebody can let me know, or I'll go back and check it. But still, it's been a gift. It's been a gift, it's been a gift to learn how to rest and to learn the really the truth of the statement. I remember reading Andrew Murray, who was a pastor, he was a Scottish pastor in Scotland in the late 1800s, and he says man's greatest activity is passivity at the feet of Jesus. And I, you know, used to read that and was just like, okay, so I just gotta, okay, I gotta have my quiet time and I'm gonna sit before the Lord. And that's not to say that all of these years I haven't had real communion with the Lord. I have. I have walked with Jesus and and I know that I know him. I know that I don't know him like I should. I know that I don't know him like I want to. But he is teaching me in this season that passivity before him right now is is the greatest thing that I can do is to trust him, to trust that. That he has me, that he is holding me.

Speaker: 20:03

It's like I said to my mom last week, you know, I there have been times in this grief where I I can't I have not been able to find the Lord. It's been hard for me to discern his presence. And even though I know, I know in my head, I I know in my knower, as she likes to say, that he has me. There's still been that anxiety of like I'm not experiencing the Lord's presence. And, you know, I know that he hasn't left me or forsaken me. Where is he? And you know, it just and you start to just get turned up into a ball of guts and anxiety and madness sometimes. Just it's just the striving, the unnecessary striving. And and she said to me, she said, you know what, Carrie, it is okay that you cannot find him right now because he has found you. And that is what the Lord is is calling me to rest in. And I pray for some of us that this year has been so difficult and so heavy and so wearying that we can we can be held in that, that even if we can't tangibly discern the Lord's presence, that we can trust that he has us and that he holds us. And so these things are are the things that I I am remembering and thanking the Lord for.

Speaker: 21:15

And the last one is obviously this podcast, this this platform that the Lord has given me, and and that he will do with what he wants to do with. But I was trepidatious and afraid to start this for a lot of reasons. And yet it has hit me again and again and again that one of the reasons the Lord was requiring me to start this podcast when he was, is because it was a way that he was going to help heal me in a lot of ways. As I have said before, and I will keep saying, probably until the day that I die, there is power in the act of remembering what the Lord has done for us. And it is one of the most spoken commands in scripture. Remember who he is, remember what he has done, remember his judgments, remember his goodness, look and see how he has created these things, remember what he has called you out of, remember how he delivered you on Egypt, how he flew you on eagle's wings out of the land of slavery. Remember who he is, remember what he has done for you. And talking about the things that Jesus has done for me, the lessons that he has taught me, being able to share how Jesus has administered to me in the desert and ministered to me in the fruitful places has been a gift, has been a gift and has strengthened my walk in ways that I probably can't even define right now, but that I am starting to see. And I'm really grateful for it.

Speaker: 22:45

And so, my friends, those are the things that I am remembering about 2025. I am remembering some of the difficulties of this year and the grief of this year, but I am also remembering the ways that Jesus has shown up for me. And he has shown up for my family. And I know, I know that even in the difficulty, when you sit down and you look back at this year, the Holy Spirit will show you ways that you couldn't see in the moment, but you can see now that he was showing up for you, that he was ministering his comfort and his grace and his mercy and his loving kindness and his hope and his goodness to you and to me.

Speaker: 23:27

And so as we remember what the Lord has done, we also look forward to what he is doing now and what he will do. And I mean, to be honest, after the last seven years, I have really stopped saying 2020, blah, blah, blah, is gonna be the best year, best year yet, um, because it inevitably has then uh not been, and the Lord knows that. But I and I know that there are more things to come for this year. I know that I will have things that I have to wrestle with and walk through with the Lord, but I also have a sense of anticipation. I have a real sense of anticipation for this year and what the Lord is going to do. And so I have not done a word of the year for a very long time. Um, I did one, I was pretty consistent with it, like six or seven years in a row. And then, you know, life happens and stuff happens, and I just didn't do it. And, you know, last year, well, the beginning of this year, the Lord gave me a verse. He gave me those verses out of Ephesians to pray. But this year I really feel like going into 2026, the word that the Lord has given me is joy. And, you know, that could be we we have a tendency sometimes, and I say we generally, the church can kind of be like, you know, we just have to have joy in the Lord, and the joy of the Lord is our strength. Well, what does that really mean? And what does that really look like? And I feel like in the midst of so much sorrow and sadness, Jesus is giving me an opportunity to know what that means.

Speaker: 25:04

Hebrews tells us, Hebrews 12 tells us that for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame. And he also tells us, the writer of Hebrews also tells us, to fix our eyes on Jesus. Consider him who endured hostility from sinners such as yourselves, and don't grow weary in doing good. So if Jesus, in the midst of the crucifixion, in the midst of walking in the knowledge that he was going to be crucified, he was going to be beaten, he was going to be tortured, he was going to be forsaken by the Father for our sins, that we would have an opportunity at reconciliation with the Father, how much more so can we find true holy spiritual joy in what we're going through? And that's not a happy, clappy, fake joy. And I'm being challenged by this idea of joy in a book that I am reading right now called Delighting in Jesus by Asherita Ciuciu, I think it's how you say her last name. Asherita, if you ever listen to this, which I don't think that you will, but like if you ever do, I'm really sorry if I butchered your last name. Anyway, um, my mom and my brother and I did her advent book, Unwrapping the Names of Jesus, which was powerful and amazing. And we are actually going to do her book called Unwrapping the Love of Jesus for Lent this year.

Speaker: 26:25

But I'm reading this book by Asharita, and she talks about rediscovering what joy really means in the midst of brokenness, um, burnout, and burden. And I'm maybe only like 40 or 50 pages in, but already this book has challenged me. It is um, it is a place where the Lord is really meeting me. I am writing in this book, I'm writing questions in this book, and I'm dating them so I can go back when I read it again and see how the Lord has answered my question. But it is, it's all about joy, and that joy is actually an integral part of the Christian walk. It is an integral part of discipleship.

Speaker: 27:07

And so I wanted to for myself find the Hebrew and Greek definitions of joy in scripture, and and where I pulled the word joy out from the Hebrew is um is from Psalm 51, where David has lamented what he has done to Uriah. He's lamented how he has sinned with Bathsheba. The Lord has taken his first son, and he is repenting, and he says, Restore unto me the joy of your salvation. And so that word joy in uh in the Hebrew is the Hebrew number, the strongest number is 8342, and it is Sason, I think. You guys probably have to cringe every time I try to speak Greek or Hebrew, it's literally the worst. It's fine. Anyway, this word in the Hebrew, the word that David uses here, this is what this word joy means. And and there's many variations that play on joy and delight, um, exuberance, but I picked joy specifically. So the term in this Hebrew term describes a deep, exuberant joy that springs from divine favor. It is used 22 times across narrative, poetic, and prophetic books to celebrate God's salvation, to mark festive community life, and by contrast, to warn of the dread that follows when that joy is withdrawn. Together, these occurrences trace the arc of redemptive history, creation blessed, covenant ruptured, judgment felt, and restoration promised, while offering enduring counsel for worship and ministry. These occurrences weave a tapestry in which joy is both gift and goal. It crowns the righteous king, steadies the penitent sinner, celebrates communal deliverance, and heralds the coming reign of God. For believers today, it stands as a call to anchor delight in the finished and future works of the Lord, ministering that same joy to a world yearning for lasting gladness. Oh, I read it and it's just like, oh, there's just so much. It's so amazing. And that's and that's part of what I love. I love that it does. It touches on so many different things that um this joy of the Lord and and what it means.

Speaker: 29:31

And when I was looking at joy in the New Testament, I chose the word that Jesus uses in John 15, 11. These things I have said to you that my joy may be complete in you. And that Greek, the strong number for that is 5479, and it is chara, I think. Guys, I probably should just stop, right? You can look it up. You can, you know, you can you can also try and speak Greek and Hebrew and massacre these words with me. It'll be great. You know, it'll be fun. So I want to read to you, and both of these definitions are out of my favorite topical lexicon from Bible Hub. Again, not an ad, just my favorite. So joy in the New Testament is more than an emotion. It is the settled, spirit-given delight that arises from the redemptive acts and abiding presence of God. It is rooted in divine initiative, experienced in the believer, and expressed both now and in the age to come. So, how does this impact us practically? We cultivate joy through scripture, prayer, and worship where the Spirit applies gospel truth to the heart. We express joy in community, strengthening others just as the Macedonians did. We endure hardship by focusing on the future joy guaranteed in Christ. We let joy motivate our service, reflecting the Savior who rejoices over one repentant sinner. In some, Chara permeates the New Testament as the hallmark of God's saving presence, the strength of the church's witness, and the foretaste of eternal blessedness.

Speaker: 31:09

This is why I am focusing on joy this year, because it is not an emotion, it is spirit-given. It's literally a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is something that is evoked in us when we consider Jesus, when we consider the Father, when we read about his character, when we follow the Holy Spirit and the work that he has called us to do, when we worship him and when we when we ask the Lord to help us love him and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, it is it is what is evoked and it's what holds us. It is, it is not just happiness and it's not just a feeling, but it is it is it's just so much more than that. And I am looking forward to what the Lord is going to show me about joy this year. And I know that oftentimes, I mean, James writes to us in James 1, count it all joy when you suffer trial of any kind, that it is, that it is an honor, it's it's a it's a delight. You know, the disciples in Acts 2, I believe, Acts 2 or 3, they rejoiced, they had joy when they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. And and so I'm not saying that joy comes separate from hardship. No, oftentimes it is, it is actually how the Holy Spirit births, births joy in us because it is us being conformed to the image of Jesus. The joy comes knowing even though there is sorrow and we weep for a night, we know that joy comes in the morning. We know that there is someone who has walked this path before us and who is walking with us, who is yoked to us now, that we would walk through what he has appointed to us, both beautiful, beautiful mountaintops and dark valleys, that Jesus is in both places and he uses both places for his perfect purpose and will. And they're all designed to cultivate and to conform the image of Jesus within us.

Speaker: 33:19

Before I go, I want to read one more thing to you. And I thought this was so beautiful. It is from a Welsh pastor named David Martin Lowe Jones, who was born in the late 1800s and died in 1981. He was a Welsh minister, and he was a minister of Westminster Chapel in London for almost 30 years. And I think somewhere online, I think on his website, you can actually listen to some of his sermons. And he's got a fabulous accent. And man, he preaches the word of the Lord with fervor and passion and desire and conviction for the Lord. But I loved what he said about joy. And I want to leave you with this as you sit down and remember what the Lord has done for you. Remember the questions that I asked myself. And I hope that they're helpful questions for you to ask yourself. You know, when we when we look back on what the Lord has done for us, what does it evoke in us? And what is it exactly that we think the Lord can provide for us? And as we look at those things and we look at this this past year, and then we turn and we look, yes, it is the page flip of a calendar, right? From December to January, and yet it still signifies new things. And oftentimes we go into January thinking it is just a barren wasteland because it's the dead of winter, and yet what is the Lord cultivating in the darkness? What is he cultivating? What is he calling forth in you? What is he calling you to? What is he trying to show you about himself? And for me, it is I know he is trying to teach me joy.

Speaker: 35:00

And so I want to read to you these words from Martin Lloyd Jones. We do not go to a dictionary to define joy, we go to the New Testament instead. This is something quite peculiar which cannot be explained. It is a quality which belongs to the Christian life in its essence, so that in our definition of joy, we must be very careful to see that it conforms to what we see in our Lord. The world has never seen anyone who knew joy as our Lord Jesus knew it, and yet he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. So our definition of joy must somehow correspond to that. Joy is something very deep and profound, something that affects the whole and entire personality. In other words, it comes to this. There is only one thing that can give true joy, and that is the contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He satisfies my mind, he satisfies my emotions, he satisfies my every desire. He and his great salvation include the whole personality and nothing less, and in him I am complete. Joy, in other words, is the response and the reaction of the soul to a knowledge and a knowing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker: 36:29

Amen, friends, and amen. I pray the Lord blesses you with his person, with his presence, and with his power, with his strength and his goodness, with his leading and direction, with his correction and the absolute gift of knowing that you are held by him and you are led by him and you are known by him. And I pray that all of us would move forward into 2026, knowing, as David writes in Psalm 16, that in the Lord's presence there is fullness of joy. Thanks for listening to this episode of Honey from the Rock. If this episode or any other episode of the podcast has encouraged you, would you consider taking a moment to like, share, subscribe, or write a review for the podcast? I would greatly appreciate it, and may you be blessed in the Lord.