Jesus is our Savior. Now, if all there was to His being our Savior was His redeeming sacrifice, then the Savior’s work ended nearly 2000 years ago. But I want you to know that such is not the case; His redeeming work is not done. He is still involved in our lives. One of the reasons that Jesus is our Savior is because of His ability to see the divine in each one us that we cannot, and through His love, bring it out. Consider John, chapter 1 when the Savior first meets Simon Peter.

Andrew brings Simon to meet the Savior. When the Savior sees him, He says to him, “…Thou are Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas,” or Peter in the Greek, “which is by interpretation, [a seer or] A stone.” (John 1:42)

Can you imagine what those words must have done to Peter? One minute you are Simon, a lowly Galilean fisherman, and the next, you are a fisher of men, a personal friend of the Messiah, a seer, the greatest calling a man can have, and a man of rock! Surely, Peter would never have forgotten those words. Like a beacon before his soul, he would have followed them, and spent the rest of his life living up to them.

And again, look at the nickname the Master gave two others of His apostles, James and John. He called them – if I can say it right – “…Boanerges,…” which means – and I love this – “…The sons of thunder:” (Mark 3:17)

Now you know, we all have things about ourselves we want to change, and I guess this is the time of the year for it. But I have found, and so have you, that it is so much easier to change when we have a friend to help us. The Savior is that friend. From the first moment we begin to become acquainted with Him, we feel the gentle but firm upward tug of His love and faith. He will not rest until He has drawn forth firm us every talent, every virtue, and every power lying latent within us that we will give Him. And so it is.

Happy New Year to you.