Are you a New Year’s girlie? Let’s be honest with each other. I am insanely introspective, so I love the goals, the dreaming, and the reflecting, but when it came to the actual New Year’s celebrations, sis…

I was in bed at 9:30 pm last night! 

But more importantly than that, I want to tell you something I learned today I am so grateful the Lord allowed me to learn on January 1, 2025.

It will serve me so much this coming year. It trust it will you, too, if you stick around for a few!

I ended 2024 a little banged up by the world.

Maybe you, too? I know God loves me. I know His plans for me are good. But sometimes the world is so broken and dark it’s hard to live in that reality.

So let me tell you what I learned today that will help us both this year!

Turn your attention with me for a quick second to Psalm 73.

If you have time, I’d say please read the whole thing because it’s AMAZING.

Asaph is mad that it seems like the wicked are prosperous while the people of God suffer.

He says, “But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (Psalm 73:2-3)

But before he starts telling us how he feels, he says in verse one: “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.”

This is awesome (and genuine) to me because before he lets it rip on what he’s mad about, it feels like he says, “God is good. Now let me tell you how I reeeeally feel.” My prayers have felt like that before!

Read the Psalm and you’ll see this attitude continues for a few verses.

He says the wicked are fat, prideful, violent, they don’t acknowledge God, and more. This is not a nice buttoned-up prayer where he’s trying to hide how distraught he feels.

In verses 16 and 17 (so quite a few verses of honesty later) he has this epic pause where he says,

“But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.”

He wasn’t sure how to make sense of his feelings and thoughts about these bad wicked people. But then he went to God about it (literally to church). After that, Asaph realized the real truth about the situation: 

“Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!” (Psalm 73:18-19)

It wasn’t until Asaph was honest with God and went to the Lord that he realized the truth about his feelings and his situation. 

The Bible says our hearts are deceptive and wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). We may feel some type of way about someone or something, but after spending honest time with God, He shows us the truth. And PS. what another good reason to go to church regularly?!

It doesn’t end there though.

What I love is that next Asaph is honest about who he is and how he is acting towards God. Asaph admits his sin in verse 22 that he “was brutish and ignorant” and he continues, “I was like a beast toward you.”

Have you ever described yourself to the Lord like that?!

Not only was Asaph honest in verse one about who he knows God to be (God is good) but as he goes along he also realizes the truth about himself. He almost slipped. He was ignorant towards God. He had sin he needed to confess.

Isn’t it such a freeing feeling when we can be honest to God about how we’re feeling but then also turn around and be honest about how broken we are and how badly we need Him?

God knows us fully. He loves us deeply in Christ. We don’t have to hide from Him. We can’t even when we try (See Psalm 139).

As if it couldn’t get better, it does. Look how Asaph ends this Psalm:

“Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;

you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

But for me it is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

that I may tell of all your works.”

Psalm 73:23-28

After everything, Asaph admits God is always with him. God’s Word guides Asaph despite his feelings. When Asaph’s life is over, he is sure he will be with God in heaven. Asaph spends a lot of time talking to God about how the wicked prosper, but in the end, Asaph essentially says “Sure, they have all that and it’s good for them now. But there’s nothing on earth I desire but you, God. You are all I need. You’re that good!” 

This is the cry I want to come from my heart in 2025: That it is good for me to be near God. 

There are so many things in this Psalm I pray you and I take into this new year, but a few of those things are as follows:

Be honest before the Lord. Preach to yourself the truth about who God really is. Let God know how you feel (even though we know He already knows, there is something in the conversing with Him.) Don’t hide from Him (Remember you can’t even when you try.) Admit your sins to Him. Remind yourself the best place for you to be is with Him. Go to church and learn from His Word with your sisters in Christ. And then chase after Him with your whole heart. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I don’t know what 2025 will hold but I know God holds it and He is faithful. Trust Him with all your heart, sister (See Proverbs 3:5-6).