Faith@First - January 9, 2026
I had a plan for this devotional. It was going to be inspirational. Hopeful. And include a picture of me holding this frame with a positive message for a new year. And then I dropped it. Not gently either. Frame cracked. Glass chipped. That’s the kind of week this new year has started with.
Maybe you can relate. Maybe you walked into January with motivation, good intentions, and a mental list of things you were finally going to get right—and then life intervened. Plans fell apart. Schedules unraveled. The fresh start already feels a little upside down.
If that’s you, you’re not alone.
Scripture says, “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Clay jars aren’t polished or permanent. They’re fragile. They chip. They crack. And yet God chooses them on purpose—so divine strength is what people notice, not our perfection.
I think that’s the lesson I learned this week:
that a broken jar or frame doesn’t erase the beauty of what it was meant to hold. If anything, it tells a more honest story: that hope isn’t found in everything going according to plan, but in Christ meeting us when things fall apart.
We’ll keep reflecting on that as we continue our series called Fresh Start—not because new years makes life new, but because “His mercies are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22–23).
Join us for worship as we discover together that, with Christ, we can still have a good day—chipped and all.
Keep the Faith@First,
Pastor Nicole
