The civil year · New Year · January
This year, don’t just become a better you. Walk closer with him.
Resolutions ask what you’ll achieve. Scripture asks who you’ll walk with.
The gym membership is already paid for. The read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan made it to Leviticus and quietly stalled. By February the list on the fridge feels less like hope and more like a verdict. If that’s you, pull up a chair. Most of us have a stack of old Januarys.
Four tired ways through New Year
Which one sounds like you this year?
Fellow travelers
We aren’t the first to walk this way.
- The rich fool made confident plans for bigger barns and many easy years, and never once talked them over with God (Luke 12:16–21).
- James gently interrupts our five-year plans. We are a mist, so we say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:13–15).
- The Teacher ran every self-improvement project he could find: houses, gardens, wealth, music. Afterward he called it all “chasing after the wind” (Eccl 2:4–11).
Enoch’s whole life story fits in one line of Scripture, and the line is simply that he walked with God (Gen 5:24).
Where the Shepherd meets us
The destination of every season is the same: God himself.
- God doesn’t hand us a better version of ourselves and wish us luck. He says, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Ex 33:14).
- What the Lord asks of our year is small enough to carry: act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).
- And when February comes and the plan slips, his mercies are new every morning, not only every January (Lam 3:22–23).
Instead of a list, choose one “with” phrase for the year and pray it daily. “With you in my work.” “With you at dinner.” “With you on the commute.” Write it where you’ll see it, and let Our Habits help you build around it.
Keep walking
- Us with God and Time
- Over God: Sheep that know the way
- Us with God and Our Habits
- The Calendarthe whole year at a glance