The New Year is a humbling and encouraging time for so many. As Christians, it’s a time for us to reflect on the ways we want to better glorify God and draw near to Him in the coming year, and a time to rest in Him after the frenetic, joyful, and sometimes painful season of Christmas.

After a trying few years, my husband and I did a week-long fast at the start of Jan 2021 in order to draw near to God and wholeheartedly seek Him. I look back and almost long for that time in which I felt so wholly reliant on His grace. Our lives are so different now almost a year later and that is all down to God’s timing, goodness, and grace. Every day I must re-learn to rely on Him, otherwise I will never be truly satisfied.

In this illustration, I wanted to convey the darkness of a difficult year being broken by the brightest hope humans have–the hope that we have in our Saviour. A hope that is not self-seeking or boastful, but full of compassion, humility, truth, and patience. Let’s trust in our beautiful Saviour to lead us through another potentially uncertain year!

—Naomi Trollope

What are your hopes for this year?

Perhaps it’s for that special someone to finally come. A promotion, more pay, or better work hours. Or just a job. Good health. Family’s well being. The pandemic to finally, finally blow over.

The past couple of years have been difficult, with many hopes stalled, if not dashed altogether. Yet, it’s when we are on our knees that we learn to look up and see the truly enduring Hope: Our Father of light, who does not change like shifting shadows; who has brought us from death to life and will one day make us complete in Him.

Where our earthly hopes remain unfulfilled wishes, our heavenly hope is a fulfilled promise in Jesus. 

So let us place our hope in our unchanging, ever faithful God. In our weariness, let us cling to our  Sustainer who’ll carry us to the end. In our darkest days, let us look to the Light that will never fade.

If you have a story of hope to share, we want to hear from you. Check out our writer’s guidelines and start writing to us!

Here are some subthemes to help you get started: 

• Hope in the living God
• Saved by believing
• Labour and strive—training for godliness (1 Timothy 4:8)

If you’re more of a visual person, you can be a part of the YMI community by contributing or tagging your artworks with our hashtag #ymitoday. Check out our creatives’ guidelines and send us your artworks.

We know you love your colours, so do we! Every two months, we set a colour theme that we’ll work around. Use the colour palette below to increase your chances of getting featured!