Well y’all, we made it!!
H A P P Y N E W Y E A R ! !
It’s officially that time of year when we’ll be writing the wrong date for the next few weeks. I know I’m not the only one who’ll still be living in 2024 on paper until at least January 29!
But even if I mess up the year on paper, in my heart, I know that 2025 is here, and I’m beyond excited to kick it off with YOU.
Today, we’re starting The Good Life Kickstart Challenge! Now, I know what you’re thinking:
“Wait a minute… I’m not ready!”
“Who starts a challenge in the middle of the week? Can’t we just wait for Monday?”
Be honest with yourself—how many times last year did you say you’d start getting your life together on Monday? And when Monday came and went, how often did you tell yourself, “Next Monday for sure!” Then the first Monday of the month. Then the next.
Here’s the truth: there are 52 Mondays in 2025, and if we let old habits run the show, every one of them will pass us by without change.
Is that how you want to begin this new year? With the same mindset, the same procrastination, and the same patterns? Or do you want to start fresh, surrender fully, and allow God to transform your life—not on Monday, but right now?
How many times have you told God you’d spend more time with Him? Or that you’d restart that Bible study you began last year? How many times have you promised to get it together only to feel like you failed yourself—and God—again?
Here’s the good news: we serve a God of grace.
The Grace Period
For the first 5 days of this challenge, we’re entering The Grace Period—a time to reflect, reset, and lean fully into God’s unmerited favor.
What is grace?
The Greek word charis speaks of kindness, favor, and goodwill. The Topical Encyclopedia defines it as, “the unmerited favor and love of God toward humanity.”
In Genesis 6, we read that Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Despite humanity’s corruption, Noah received God’s favor. In Exodus 33, God tells Moses, “You have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.” This came after Moses declared, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” Moses desired God Himself above anything God could give—and that’s the kind of relationship God wants with us too. Imagine—the Creator of the universe knowing your name and desiring a relationship with you!
Fast forward to the New Testament, and we see this grace magnified in Jesus Christ. As John tells us:
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth… From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace—one gracious blessing after another.” (John 1:14,16)
Through His sacrifice, we have received grace upon grace—one gracious blessing after another. The grace that Jesus offers is the means by which we are saved. As Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
What I love most about God’s grace is that it’s not a one-time gift. It’s not just a saving grace, securing our relationship with the Father. It’s a full grace—an overflowing, abundant grace that is available in every area of our lives—spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical.
But have you ever asked God to help you experience that grace?
• To deepen your intimacy with Him?
• To guide your food choices?
• To give you the will to work out or drink more water?
• To spend more time in His Word and in prayer?
• To live in harmony with others and walk in His purpose?
Surrendering to the Good Life
In Luke 18, a rich young ruler approached Jesus, asking, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus then countered with a question of His own: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Then Jesus proceeded with a list of commandments: “Do not murder, steal, or bear false witness.” The ruler confidently replied that he had kept all these since his youth.
But Jesus saw deeper into his heart and said, “One thing you still lack: sell all you have, distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
What Jesus was asking echoed what He told His disciples earlier in Luke 9:23-25:
“If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it. For what does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world, and yet loses or forfeits himself?”
The ruler became sad. Why? Because he wasn’t ready to let go of the life he clung to so tightly—his possessions, status, and identity rooted in the temporary. The thought of losing these things for the sake of following Jesus was too much. Jesus knew this and remarked, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.”
In that time, wealth was deeply tied to social status and power. And isn’t it the same today? How often do we find ourselves prioritizing material possessions, social validation, or personal ambition over what God has clearly told us is essential for the Good Life?
When Jesus asked the young man, “Why do you call Me good?” He was making a profound point. The ruler didn’t fully understand what good meant, just as we often don’t.
We don’t realize how waking up and going straight to our phones disconnects us from the stillness and presence of God.
We don’t understand how using food to satisfy physical desires or numb emotional pain is not truly nourishing us.
We don’t fully grasp how detrimental it is to live apart from God’s presence.
We don’t know good because we haven’t put down the things that are keeping us from experiencing God’s goodness—fully, truly, and deeply.
One of my favorite verses right now is Psalm 73:25-28. Verse 28 says, “But as for me, God’s presence is my good.” The nearness of God is my good.
Is this true for you? Do you know that when you draw near to God, He makes all things good? There’s no room for anything less, because goodness isn’t just something He gives—it’s who He is.
We will never experience the Good Life apart from God. In Luke 18, the people who overheard Jesus’ conversation with the rich young ruler were astonished, asking, “Then who can be saved?” They couldn’t fathom it. If a man with wealth, status, and power—someone who could buy or bargain his way into nearly anything—couldn’t obtain eternal life, then who could?
This is where grace enters.
Jesus replied in Luke 18:27, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” The Good Life—a life of holiness and abundance—is not something we can achieve on our own. It is a life made possible only through the empowering grace of God.
The quicker we recognize this truth, the quicker we surrender. And when we surrender, we find that it’s God who does the work in us.
Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 that God’s grace is sufficient and His power is perfected in our weakness. In Philippians 2:13, he explains, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.” The NLT puts it this way: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.”
This is grace: God working in us, drawing us near, empowering us to live holy lives, and leading us to the Good Life that can only be found in Him and through Him.
Are we willing to let go of what the world defines as good so we can take hold of the eternal life Jesus offers? Or are we like the rich young ruler—grasping at fleeting treasures while missing the fullness of God’s grace?
To live the Good Life is to live a holy life, and that’s only possible through the empowering grace of God.
Friend, as we begin this challenge, I need you to know:
You can’t do this alone.
ALL GOD WANTS FROM YOU IS SURRENDER.
Andrew Murray writes in Absolute Surrender: “We need to be brought to the end of ourselves to live a surrendered life… to know that it is impossible for me to live right.” God doesn’t come alongside us to help in our efforts—He is the one who gives us the will and the power to live according to His plan.
Over the next 5 days, I’m inviting you to fast from social media and spend intentional time with God. Pray this prayer daily, morning and night:
Lord, for the next 45 days, my sole purpose is to let go.
I cannot receive what You have for me while holding on to my pride, my own power, my plans, my desires for this life.
Lord, to be honest, I don’t know what is good—only You do. Your thoughts are higher than mine. I can’t even begin to imagine the goodness You have in store for me. I don’t know Your plans for the next 45 days or for all of 2025, but one thing I am sure of: You are good.
I am determined to dwell in the goodness of Your presence because, just as David realized in Psalm 73, Your nearness is my good.
Lord, I don’t want to spend a moment—not even a second—in 2025 apart from You. Like Moses said to You in Exodus, I don’t want to go anywhere if You’re not there. I don’t want anything You don’t give me. Lord, I don’t want the job, the house, the relationship, the physical transformation, the career—nothing—if it means I don’t have You.
Lord, I ask to see Your glory in 2025. Just as You knew Moses by name, I want to live in the reality of Your favor every day of my life. Remind me of Your everlasting love. Prepare me for the glory You will reveal in this new year. Lord, I long to see Your face, but even if all I catch is a glimpse of Your presence as You pass by, that will be enough for me.
Prepare me for this journey I’ve chosen to take with You. I know that without Your will and power, I can’t do or receive anything. It’s all beyond me. Lord, I surrender everything to You—it’s all Yours. I come helpless before Your throne and ask You to strengthen me to do Your will. Help me to be fully surrendered, just as Jesus was when He walked this earth.
Lord, I am eternally connected to You. Help me never to lose the connection that gives me sustaining power to live this good life. Let me realize that apart from Your omnipotence, apart from Your divine power,
I can do no good thing. But right now, I claim Your mighty power in my life. In the name of Jesus, these 45 days will mark a new beginning. I believe this journey will renew my hope, restore my mind, and regenerate my will to live out the calling You have placed on my life.
I believe it all by faith.
In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
A Message to You:
As you journey through the next five days, I encourage you to seek God and ask Him what He wants you to receive from this Good Life Kickstart Challenge.
If you aren’t a paid subscriber of The Tov Way yet, you won’t have access to the full weekly devotionals and additional resources, but you can still participate! I want everyone to take away as much as they can from this experience.
I’ll be back in five days to continue walking this journey with you, praying for each of you as we pursue the Good Life with God together.
It’s time to get back to the Good Life!
I love y’all so much. Peace.
MJ
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