What We Carry Into a New Year

There’s something about the start of a new year that makes us reach for a pen—sometimes literally, sometimes just in our thoughts. We list things. Hopes. Fix-its. Fresh starts. We imagine a version of ourselves that feels a little more together than the one who closed the door on December.

None of that is wrong. Wanting growth is a good thing. Intention matters.

But somewhere along the way, the new year quietly asks a deeper question than What do you want to accomplish?
It asks, Who are you becoming while you try?

God seems far more interested in that question than we are.

It’s easy to measure progress by what we can point to—habits formed, goals met, boxes checked. But Scripture gently redirects our attention inward. “Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established” (Proverbs 16:3, NKJV). That verse isn’t really about productivity. It’s about alignment. About the quiet ordering of the heart that happens before anything meaningful takes shape.

Because committing our plans to God isn’t the same as asking Him to bless them.

It’s closer to laying them down.

When you commit something to the Lord, you’re not just handing over your calendar or your to-do list. You’re offering your motives. Your expectations. Your need to control outcomes. You’re saying, You see more than I do—so lead me, even if that changes the plan.

That kind of surrender doesn’t feel efficient. It feels vulnerable. And maybe that’s why we resist it.

Most New Year’s resolutions don’t fall apart because we lack discipline. They unravel because we’re trying to power change from the outside in. We focus on behavior without tending the soil beneath it. And soil matters. Jesus spoke often about that—about seeds and roots and what happens below the surface long before anything is visible.

Real change works that way too.

When the heart isn’t aligned, even the best goals become heavy. But when the heart is steady, growth becomes something you’re shaped by, not something you strain for. Scripture describes this as a quiet, internal work—“For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, NKJV). Not forcing. Not rushing. Working within.

The Spirit doesn’t just help you accomplish what needs to be done. He changes who you are while you’re doing it.

And that may be the truest invitation of a new year is to remain open. To let God establish your thoughts before you establish your plans. To trust that the same God who orders seasons also knows how to guide a willing heart, step by step.

Because when the heart is committed, the path has a way of unfolding—often simpler, often deeper, and always more purposeful than we imagined.

If this Fireside Chat warmed your spirit and sparked fresh resolve to live what you believe, fan that flame with Scripture—“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). Pull a little closer to the Light, and carry it into the week ahead.

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