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For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18, ESV).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a Lutheran pastor) was arrested in Nazi Germany in 1943, for what the government considered to be anti-nazi crimes, and then placed in prison for the next two years of his life.
From prison, Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter to a friend, “One waits, hopes, does this, that, or the other — things that are really of no consequence — the door is shut, and can only be opened from the outside.” However, Bonhoeffer didn’t take his own advice as he wrote prolifically not only letters but also prayers, theological essays, poems, and personal correspondence with his fiancée.
In one of Bonhoeffer’s prison writings, he spoke of the upcoming new year. His quote below is especially poignant, because it came from prison…
I believe that God will give us all the strength we need to help us to resist in all times of distress. But he never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not on him alone. A faith such as this should allay all our fears for the future.
About New Year’s resolutions, Dietrich wrote …
At the beginning of a new year, many people have nothing better to do than to make a list of bad deeds and resolve from now on to proceed with better intentions, but they are still stuck in the middle of an unbelief.
They believe that a good intention already means a new beginning; they believe that on their own they can make a new start whenever they want. But that is an evil illusion: only God can make a new beginning with people. Therefore, people cannot make a new beginning at all; they can only pray for one.
Only where God is can there be a new beginning. We cannot command God to grant it; we can only pray to God for it. And we can pray only when we realize that we cannot do anything, that we have reached our limit, that someone else must make that new beginning.
Wow, probably the most insightful understanding of New Year’s resolutions that I’ve read. Let me add that change begins with God and is sustained by the Holy Spirit to give Jesus the glory! In one of Bonhoeffer’s last New Year’s Eve devotions, he wrote …
If we survive during the coming weeks or months, we shall be able to see quite clearly that all has turned out for the best.
The prison door never opened for Dietrich Bonhoeffer, at least not in this life. In the last few weeks of the Third Reich, Hitler wrote a list of political prisoners to be executed, and Bonhoeffer’s name was on that list. One book describes the last day of his life …
At the break of dawn on April 9, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged. As they prepared him for his death, he preached a final sermon. His words were remembered and later retold by a captured Royal Air Force pilot who was held in the same prison, “This for me is not the end but the beginning of life.”
Preaching a sermon — no better way to prepare to see Jesus. While in prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer worked on a book titled Ethics, which was then published posthumously. In the book, he writes …
So, heaven is torn open above us humans, and the joyful message of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ rings out from heaven to earth as a cry of joy. I believe, and in believing I receive Christ; I have everything. I live before God.
A great thought for us in 2026. We all have our prisons, but only Jesus can open the door from the outside and set us free!