Chazak! Be courageous! Do not be afraid or tremble before them. For ADONAI [the LORD] your God—He is the One who goes with you. He will not fail you or abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 TLV
Take a Deep Breath. Shabbat Shalom! We’re winding down 2025. I don’t know about you, but this year was a lot for me and my family. Really difficult, yet really good.
The New Year is approaching. What will 2026 hold for us? We may believe that where 2025 leaves us—in financial struggles, grief, emotional or physical battles, family issues, or triumphs, prosperity, harmony—is the new year’s foundation. That’s the way it felt for hubby and me this past January. Except for us, it was the former rather than the latter.
For many years, my word for the year was Chazak—be strong, be courageous. In 2021-23, I chose the word as a victorious, fearless cry—ready for GOD to go before us in battle. It seemed so clear that the Holy Spirit chose that word. My assumption was that whatever battles were ahead, CHAZAK! When others struggled, I could encourage them to CHAZAK!
“ADONAI will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them.” (vs. 4, TLV)
Yes! Victory!
Well, those years held some victories, but also immense loss. The loss felt crippling and confusing. Did I hear wrong? Had the battles been too great? CHAZAK? Not feeling it.
By the end of that first year, Chazak was but a whisper of hope. When I sought Him for my 2022 word, it always came back to Chazak. Going into this year after last year’s trials and tribulations, with the same word gave me pause. Okay, in all honesty, there was some trembling going on. What other battles were before me? Would the loss once again prevail over the victories?
It’s no coincidence that the verse of the day is Moses’ exhortation to the Children of Israel as they prepare to leave him behind and journey to their long-promised land.
Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong! Be courageous! For you are to go with this people into the land ADONAI has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you are to enable them to inherit it. (vs. 7, TLV)
What a great victory! After forty years, the Children
of Israel were entering the Promise Land. Yet, Moses would remain behind and would never set foot onto that precious soil.
As we prepare to close this year, and I reflect on all that has transpired this past year, I realize, yes there was loss, but there were even greater victories. Impossible triumphs. And as exhausted as my husband and I were going into this year, doors opened that we never imagined possible. In hindsight, Chazak in 2025 was not so much a battle cry or exhortation to others, it was a hold as tight as possible to the Rock while the hurricane roared.
For me—since I won’t speak for my husband (at least not in this case 😊 )—my lessons were that battles in this world are inevitable. Giving a bold CHAZAK! before a battle is only possible in faith and humility. Because the battle isn’t ours, it is the LORD’s. Which means whatever the outcome, it is of His design. Some of those battles were tremble-worthy and CHAZAK often seemed impossible, because, well, frankly, the circumstances were impossible.
Perhaps, there is CHAZAK! and there is Chazak. And even though 2025 began as in strength and hope, this year will end in a place of gratitude that somehow with perseverance and GOD’s unending grace, victories arose from battles I didn’t know we were fighting. Or maybe, battles that had been ongoing for a long time.
So, how will I end 2025? Like Moses, I will take a deep breath and cry, “CHAZAK!” and try to remain in a place of gratitude and hope.
Lighting the Fifth Candle
Tonight, after lighting the Shabbat candles, we will light the Shamash/Servant candle and with it light five more candles. As those candles burn, may we meditate on the grace and mercy and love of God may we have CHAZAK because of His grace, mercy, love, and redemption.
