Walking with Jesus: Reflections on a Tough but Transformative Year!

Walking Fearless into 2025: Lessons from a Hard Year

Happy 2025! I hope and pray that your New Year is starting off blessed! For me, it’s started out really slow. Honestly, I told the Lord I’m nervous. It’s like I’m walking through a house slowly, pausing before each door, peeking to see if anything might be thrown at me. Silly, but true.

2024 was a hard year. I lost so much while walking through it with an empty heart. At the end of December, I took time to reflect and went through my 2024 Jesus journal—a journal where I write to Jesus and jot down anything He speaks to me. It was hard to revisit those pages, but also revealing. I pinpointed where my heart deferred journey began and read over His faithful words to me. Months before, He had told me what would happen, but I put my own expectations on how it would play out. Despite my missteps, He’s always faithful. I still have mysteries written down that He’s shared with me, but I’m choosing not to worry. He will reveal them in His perfect timing.

2024: My Year of Fearless Faith

Walking into 2024, the Lord gave me the word “fearless.” I thought it would mean courage in the face of external challenges, but I learned that true fearlessness required me to confront my biggest internal fear: control. Last year was like lying on an operation table while Jesus worked on me. He plucked and pulled out old roots, and I wrestled through the process. Time and again, Jesus would whisper, “Let go,” but I held on. Eventually, circumstances forced me to detach and attach closer to Him.

This reminds me of Matthew 14 when Jesus walked on water. Peter had to detach from the safety of the boat and step out in faith to attach himself to Jesus. Fearlessness and faith go hand in hand. Like Peter, I sometimes took my eyes off Jesus, focusing instead on the external storms, and I began to sink. But, oh, beautiful Jesus reached out and grabbed my hand.

Healing and Breakthrough

I can wholeheartedly say I’ve surrendered control to Jesus. On November 17, 2024, He healed my heart deferred, making it whole again. Afterward, I had moments where I looked at my external circumstances and sank a little. But Jesus—always faithful—grabbed my hand and walked with me through December. By the end of the year, He led me to my final fearless act of 2024, something I had avoided for years. Facing it brought freedom.

To my surprise, Jesus closed the year by fulfilling a long-time dream from my dream board. It was a beautiful ending to a tough year.

Encouragement for 2025

If you struggle with control like I did, let me encourage you: give it to Jesus! Trust me, you don’t want to walk through what I did in 2024. Let’s move into 2025 more attached to Jesus, trusting His plan every step of the way.