STACEY D. WHEELER | Director of Communications and Church Planting Support
As we enter 2026 it is a natural time to prepare our hearts for a new year and reflect on the ways God is moving in our lives. Are we holding onto people or places when God is releasing us? Do we experience victory in temptation and in ministry? Are our hearts troubled and anxious? Ecclesiastes 3:1 states, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” This is a time to know who we are in Christ and experience his great love, power, hope and peace.
I was preparing for Christmas this year, searching for a certain Christmas stocking to hang on our mantle. It was the stocking for our 12-year-old granddaughter, Amelia—a stocking she’s used since she was three. It was important to me, and I began to grow a bit anxious when it wasn’t where I thought it should be. I began going through my tubs for the third time, determined to find it, and as I was searching, I found something unexpected, an old bulletin from 2018 when Tony was the interim senior pastor for Westfield Friends Church in Westfield, Indiana. It was from March, 25 th , Palm Sunday. I stopped my anxious activity and took five minutes to pause and read over my notes from that Sunday, and I was encouraged. Five main points declared the very truth my heart and spirit needed, reminding me that I have victory in this life and the next and Jesus is my peace:
- Jesus has the Final Victory: God has power and victory over sin and Satan. It is finished:
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
I Corinthians 15:55
- Jesus is the Prince of Peace: In Matthew 21: 1-11, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, which symbolized peaceful intentions. God brings us peace (Zec.9:9). A large crowd honored him by placing their cloaks in front of him and spreading branches on the road before him.
They followed him, shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
- “Hosanna” means “Save now.”: There is eternal salvation and temporary salvation. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection provide our salvation (Rom. 10:9).
- Jesus is the Savior we need: Jesus is the one who brings us peace (Luke 19:41-42).
- We have Freedom to Live now and Freedom from Death: John 11:25-26 declares the truth:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Reading my notes from Tony’s sermon and recognizing a sovereign opportunity to pause and think about Christ and his gift of peace to me, I took the time to pray and thank him for being my Savior here and for eternity. I sat in my basement and felt the peace of God settle on my heart. Jesus came to earth as a baby to become the One to lead us into all truth. I asked him to help me find Amelia’s stocking, and he did. I continued my Christmas preparations, pondering the incredible insight God had given me in an unexpected way and reflecting on the power available to us to have victory through the life of Christ.
May God give all of us peace as we follow him into 2026. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and a wonderful Savior. One way to hold onto our peace is to be hidden in Christ. The hymn “He Hideth My Soul” by Fanny Crosby (1890) expresses it well. May Jesus be your Victory, your Savior, and your Prince of Peace in 2026:
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me;
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
Where rivers of pleasure I see.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock
That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
And covers me there with His hand,
And covers me there with His hand.
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
He taketh my burden away;
He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved,
He giveth me strength as my day.
With numberless blessings each moment He crowns,
And, filled with His fulness divine,
I sing in my rapture, oh, glory to God,
For such a Redeemer as mine!
When clothed in His brightness, transported I rise
To meet Him in clouds of the sky,
His perfect salvation, His wonderful love,
I’ll shout with the millions on high.
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