550 N Main Street, Blacksburg VA

Today, my body required rest. I spent most of the day in bed, not feeling the best, but my spirit would not let me miss worship.

This journey has taught me that church does not disappear when we are weak, sometimes it meets us most clearly there. So I joined an online service for Church #141, choosing a church outside my city, as I often do when attending virtually.

And as so many Sundays before, I knew with certainty that God had something specific for me to hear.

This final Sunday of 2025 carried a message my heart needed.

At Church on Main, they speak clearly about who Jesus is: the way, the truth, and the life, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Jesus is not an abstract idea, through Him, abundant life is not promised someday, it is made available now. Through Jesus, we see who God has always been and who He will forever be.

God is love.

That truth isn’t softened or complicated here. It’s lived.

They believe Scripture is the authoritative record of humanity’s encounter with God, not a rulebook for perfection, but a guide for becoming. Not a weapon, but a witness.

And then the phrase that stayed with me long after the service ended,
“Jesus loved all. Jesus welcomed all. And so do we.”

That wasn’t just stated, it was evident.

Church on Main declares what so many people desperately need to hear, you do not need to have life figured out to belong. Come as you are. Grow into who you were created to be. No exceptions.

As I listened, I reflected deeply on what it means that God is at work within us. Scripture tells us, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). That verse has often been misunderstood, reduced to effort or performance. We are not working for our salvation, God is working in us.

When we “work out” our salvation, we are partnering with God who has already begun the work. Salvation is not a transaction we maintain, it is a relationship we respond to. Every step of obedience, every moment of surrender, every quiet act of trust is God revealing more of Himself within us.

Jesus came not for the self-sufficient but for the desperate. He stood in the synagogue and read from Isaiah, declaring, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… to bring good news to the poor… recovery of sight to the blind… to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18).

Jesus came for those who cannot save themselves.

Here is the question that stopped me in my tracks today,
If God is the One doing the work, why are we so afraid to let Him finish it?

We spend so much time trying to prove our worth to God who already gave His Son. We strive to earn love that was never conditional. We carry shame for sins Christ already bore. What if the greatest act of faith is not doing more but trusting deeper?

2025 was a hard year. For many of us, it tested faith, endurance, and hope. And yet, God was with us through every moment. We did not deserve His mercy, and still He gave it. We did not earn His grace, and still He poured it out.

There is not a single thing we can do to make God love us more than He does right now. And there is not a single thing we can do to make Him love us less.

Jesus will not give up on us.

We may have given Him a thousand reasons to walk away but He has chosen, again and again, to stay.

As we step into 2026, my prayer is this, that broken hearts would be restored, that weary souls would find rest, that suffering would be met with love, and that all of us would come to know Jesus more deeply, not as an idea, but as Emmanuel, God with us.

I am praying for us all. For every breath God gives. For every year we are granted. For every life still being shaped by grace.

I cannot wait to see where the Holy Spirit leads next week as we enter a new year, still seeking, still healing, still trusting the God who has never stopped working.