January 1st, 2026
For many of us, the past week has been a blur. The days following Christmas blend together as the adrenaline and sugar leave our systems and suddenly New Year’s Day arrives. For many, the New Year simply means trying to remember to stop writing 2025. However, others will start the year off with resolutions—plans to change and grow in 2026. Statistics indicate that about 30% of Americans will have at least one New Year’s resolution. However, 88% of those individuals will give up on said resolution within the first two weeks. This is what has been called the “Fresh Start Effect.” A new year feels like a clean slate, so attempts are made to start new things. This is the same reason you so often hear (or maybe say yourself), “I’ll start _______ on Monday.” It could be a diet, a reading plan, or a new workout routine, but the human brain is wired to feel motivated by a fresh start.
However, these annual (or weekly) resolutions so often fail because calendar divisions, while appearing to be a fresh start, actually have no effect on changing your habits or mindsets. You can create vague goals, but without an actual change at the root, these external efforts will fizzle out—usually quickly. Willpower alone will rarely be enough. This is true for New Year’s resolutions, and even more so for spiritual efforts. It’s easy enough to make a list of things you want to do on January 1, but it’s not as easy to choose to do those things when the adrenaline has worn off a couple of weeks later.
I believe this is why so many people throughout the Word of God failed to keep His Word. They created their own rules in some cases, adding to what God had already said, in an attempt to have control. For example, God commanded people to keep the Sabbath, but they created countless rules regarding how to keep the Sabbath that God never gave. They thought that if they created enough structure to control people’s choices it would help them to keep the law. However, that’s not how change comes. If the heart is not transformed, then outward actions are meaningless to Him. Isaiah 1:12-18 says this:
“When you come to appear before Me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord: “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
See, the commands God had given became a burden to Him when people were doing what He said without their hearts mirroring their actions. They came on the feast days, bringing offerings and acting religious, while they sinned the rest of the year. God said He didn’t require their “trampling His courts” and that He didn’t hear their prayers! So what does He require? Micah 6:6-8 says,
“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
The prophet Micah addressed this very issue, saying “He’s already told you.” God’s requirements are not a mystery, and it won’t be satisfied by any religious activity, however good, or self-motivated life changes. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 says,
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?”
Jesus called this the greatest commandment. Loving God must be the root of any work we do in the kingdom of God. Even our resolutions, however good they may be, will only have lasting impact if they are grounded in genuine love for God. It’s easy for us to fall into religious patterns, trying to do things for God, but if we try to do things for God in our own strength, it will be no more effective than a New Year’s resolution. Our motivation will only last so long if it’s not grounded in His Spirit and love. James 1:27 says,
“ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
What does He require but that we love Him with all we are and all we have? (Deuteronomy 10:12)
What does He require but that we walk with Him, loving justice and kindness? (Micah 6:8)
There is work to be done in the kingdom of God, but it must be done motivated by the wind of the Holy Spirit and not by our own efforts. Titus 3:4-7 says,
“When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
This same chapter also lists many things a believer’s life is supposed to be marked by. We are responsible to grow and reflect the character of God in our thoughts, words, and actions. We are responsible to be good stewards of our bodies, our households, our churches, and our communities. We are called to carry the Kingdom of God every place He calls us. However, we can never do that in our own strength. There is no resolution that will change our hearts—only God can do that! The new year is not a clean slate, unless you have been washed and renewed by the blood of Jesus. The new year is only a fresh start if you’ve laid every burden at the cross. If you choose to walk with God, you’ll go further than you could have ever dreamed of going! This year, we encourage you to go after Him with everything you have. Only in Him are all things made new!
However, these annual (or weekly) resolutions so often fail because calendar divisions, while appearing to be a fresh start, actually have no effect on changing your habits or mindsets. You can create vague goals, but without an actual change at the root, these external efforts will fizzle out—usually quickly. Willpower alone will rarely be enough. This is true for New Year’s resolutions, and even more so for spiritual efforts. It’s easy enough to make a list of things you want to do on January 1, but it’s not as easy to choose to do those things when the adrenaline has worn off a couple of weeks later.
I believe this is why so many people throughout the Word of God failed to keep His Word. They created their own rules in some cases, adding to what God had already said, in an attempt to have control. For example, God commanded people to keep the Sabbath, but they created countless rules regarding how to keep the Sabbath that God never gave. They thought that if they created enough structure to control people’s choices it would help them to keep the law. However, that’s not how change comes. If the heart is not transformed, then outward actions are meaningless to Him. Isaiah 1:12-18 says this:
“When you come to appear before Me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord: “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
See, the commands God had given became a burden to Him when people were doing what He said without their hearts mirroring their actions. They came on the feast days, bringing offerings and acting religious, while they sinned the rest of the year. God said He didn’t require their “trampling His courts” and that He didn’t hear their prayers! So what does He require? Micah 6:6-8 says,
“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
The prophet Micah addressed this very issue, saying “He’s already told you.” God’s requirements are not a mystery, and it won’t be satisfied by any religious activity, however good, or self-motivated life changes. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 says,
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?”
Jesus called this the greatest commandment. Loving God must be the root of any work we do in the kingdom of God. Even our resolutions, however good they may be, will only have lasting impact if they are grounded in genuine love for God. It’s easy for us to fall into religious patterns, trying to do things for God, but if we try to do things for God in our own strength, it will be no more effective than a New Year’s resolution. Our motivation will only last so long if it’s not grounded in His Spirit and love. James 1:27 says,
“ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
What does He require but that we love Him with all we are and all we have? (Deuteronomy 10:12)
What does He require but that we walk with Him, loving justice and kindness? (Micah 6:8)
There is work to be done in the kingdom of God, but it must be done motivated by the wind of the Holy Spirit and not by our own efforts. Titus 3:4-7 says,
“When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
This same chapter also lists many things a believer’s life is supposed to be marked by. We are responsible to grow and reflect the character of God in our thoughts, words, and actions. We are responsible to be good stewards of our bodies, our households, our churches, and our communities. We are called to carry the Kingdom of God every place He calls us. However, we can never do that in our own strength. There is no resolution that will change our hearts—only God can do that! The new year is not a clean slate, unless you have been washed and renewed by the blood of Jesus. The new year is only a fresh start if you’ve laid every burden at the cross. If you choose to walk with God, you’ll go further than you could have ever dreamed of going! This year, we encourage you to go after Him with everything you have. Only in Him are all things made new!
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