There’s a common saying we hear every New Year's: “New Year, New Me.” This phrase has become a cliche because of how many of us go into a new year full of grand plans and intentions to change our lives, establish better habits, or finally do something we’ve been putting off for too long. I'm certainly one of those that gets motivated by a new year and likes to set goals and make plans far in advance. Yet the truth of the matter is, none of us really know what tomorrow holds. And in fact, not one single person is promised tomorrow.
Is it good--and I daresay, necessary--to have goals and live with intentionality? Absolutely! But no amount of plans or intention or action on our part can guarantee our tomorrow. Not one effort can guarantee what storms, or lack thereof, we may face in the future, and how those storms turn out.
When you come to grips with that reality… It’s a bit overwhelming to think about. Maybe anxiety inducing.
But as Christians, we don’t have to live in fear of tomorrow and its uncertainty, because there is one thing we can always, always count on.
Jesus!
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. ~ Hebrews 13:8 KJV
We as humans, we may be inconsistent, prone to failure and breaking promises, but “God is not a man, that he should lie; [Number 23:19]”. He does not fail or break His promises. And while we cannot, in reality, ever see any farther ahead of ourselves except the moment we are in, He sees the end from the beginning. He holds all time and space in His hands. He knows the number of your days and what your future will bring.
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. ~ Proverbs 19:21 ESV
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ~ James 4:13-15 ESV
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. ~ Matthew 6:34 KJV
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be. ~ Psalm 139:16 NIV
Perhaps you are facing this new year with joy and anticipation, determined to make it a year to remember. To you, I say keep setting those goals and pushing toward them (I definitely have my own long list of things I’d like to accomplish in 2026!), but at the same time, remember that you don’t have the final say in the end. Release the burden of your own expectations into God’s hands and leave room for Him to guide your year as He wills.
If you’re on the other side of the coin and a new year only represents fear and anxiety, to you I say turn your eyes backward for a moment and see how far God has carried you already. We may be living in a new year, but the God we serve is still the same. Time may pass, the world may shift and change around us, but He never will. So if He was with you in 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, etc… He will be with you in 2026 too!
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
