My “life verse” is great wisdom from Jesus for a New Year …

It’s my birthday and everyone will be celebrating this evening!

Okay, they won’t be celebrating my birthday, but since it’s New Year’s eve, all sorts of celebrations are in the works by people around the world.

This morning, over coffee, I returned in my Bible to what people affectionately call their “life verse,” a verse or passage of scripture that has been more impactful in their lives than perhaps others.

I have one.

It’s a few verses found in Matthew 7. These words of Jesus sustained me when my mother died when I was just a young teen, and a long, hard road of surviving was ahead. Over and over again, I returned to this passage, and during the toughest times, they rang in my heart and provided me encouragement and hope.

So when I once again visit this scripture, I thought to myself this morning that this passage of scripture is great wisdom for anyone about to launch into the start of a New Year. So let me share these words of Jesus that have been so helpful to me throughout my life, not just a single year:

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash,” Matthew 7:24-27.

After decades of clutching to that passage of scripture, I can guarantee you from personal experience these words of Jesus are true.

So let me encourage you, as you stand on the precipice of a new year of life, cling to the teachings of Jesus, follow them, and they will be your foundation for life through whatever may come your way in 2022.

Scotty