How To Make The New Year Better Than The Last
What if we could make the new year better than the last? If we could guarantee that God’s goodness–up close and unmissable–would overshadow the trials? If we could see, threaded through the seams of our stories, the through-line that makes everything make sense?
Would we begin this year any differently, I wonder?
With more confidence, perhaps. More effortless yeses. Perhaps less compulsion to appease and more permission to take risks.
Better is not synonymous with easier. Truth is, some of the best seasons of my life are the tender ones where I spent lengthy time on my knees. They were full of closed doors and life-at-stake prayers, spilled tears and gut-honest questions.
When you’re powerless to move the timeline all you can do is trust. But learning to trust God is good before He intervenes, answers, redeems is a stretched-out process. It awakens ache and doubt and grows you in ways you’d never imagine.
I wouldn’t trade one minute of it for a less risky relationship with God.
God’s Perfectly-Timed Plan
I’d take a deep awareness of God’s presence over a smoother, less-winding route. This God–who I now know by hundreds of names written in the margins of my Bible–has met me every single time I’ve reached in His direction.
He’s not a generally compassionate God.
Not a loosely in-control God.
Not experienced in a broadly-sweeping sense.
God is highly specific in His tending of us. He’s not a General Surgeon, but a highly skilled specialist, fully equipped for every need we could ever bring Him.
He is Right-Now Peace.
Wind Shifter.
Pillar Positioned to Protect.
Hunger Satisfier.
Compassionate Waymaker.
Decider of Right.
With-ness Forever.
Communicating God.
Hidden, Safe Place.
Cannot Be Contained.
Fire-Purified Promise.
He’s the sort of God who knows the inside of me. The kind of God who always knows what’s best for me–down to every perfectly-timed detail.
It’s my understanding that lags behind, not His.
My goodness that gets tainted, never His.
I’m daring to believe that next year can be better than the last–not because I can control the circumstances that will accompany 2026, but because I know the God who sees the whole picture.
The God who grows me–carefully, patiently, and through many things that take time to make sense.
The God who redeems.
The God always on time.
8 Ways to Make the New Year Better
We make the new year better, not by gripping tighter to our will, our way, our wisdom, but by clinging to the trustworthy God by our side. We bank our lives on the unchanging nature of God, not what’s in our bank account. We embrace the rocky patches with hope, knowing that a faithful God leads us through and grows us as we walk.
Let’s dial in and make it more specific. Here are eight ways to make the new year better than the last.
1. Trade your insufficiency for God’s consistency.
It’s not a fair trade–our messy mis-steps for God’s rock-like steadfastness. But it’s one God willingly makes. In the new year, let’s spend less time trying to be enough and more time thanking God for who He (always) is.
2. Get honest with God.
God’s ear is a soft landing spot for all our pent-up unsureness, our over-tired surliness, our hesitant honesty. Bring Him your worries and your worship, your doubt and your gratitude. He welcomes every bit of it–welcomes authentic, undeniably loved you.
Get honest with Him, invite God to see the unsightly inside of you, embrace realness in your relationship with Him–and your faith will really grow.
* I’ve found Stuff I’d Only Tell God to be incredibly helpful at fostering this honesty.
3. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
Yes, there will be a million things vying for your attention. Don’t let them fracture your soul. The best way forward, sometimes the only way through the busyness, is to stay focused on Christ.
Our feet follow our eyes. Keep your eyes on Jesus, and no matter what 2026 brings, you’ll keep moving closer to Him.
4. Steep in worship music.
Where there’s discord, discontentment, or distraction, there’s also invitation to intentionally praise. Praising God precisely then pulls us out of self-defeat, self-pity, self-praise, and all our other tendencies to turn inward.
I like to leave a single song on repeat for a week or longer, until my soul memorizes the truths in the lyrics. I collect songs I can’t turn off in a Youtube playlist, called Songs I Play on Repeat. Grab it from the resource library HERE, along with Apple and Spotify playlists of my most-played songs (all worship songs) in 2025.
5. Name the nature of God.
It becomes a treasure hunt when you look for what’s true of God on every page. Write them as names for God in the margins as you read your Bible.
I put a few of my favorite names for God on a phone lock screen for you. Download below:
6. Prayerfully weigh yeses and nos.
Every yes comes at a cost: less capacity for something else. Before you decline or commit to something new in 2026, take it to Jesus. Invite Him to guide your decision. The best way to avoid burnout is to prayerfully weigh your yeses and nos.
7. Make your word of the year visible.
It’s a handy trick to train the brain: make what’s most important most easy to see.
Visibility makes memorization easy. If you want to lean hard into your word of the year, to open up to God through that word, then put it somewhere you’ll see it often. My favorite places to put my word of the year are a phone lock screen or piece of jewelry.
Need word-of-the-year ideas? Grab my list of 200 here and you’ll also get monthly reflection sheets to amplify your word-of-the-year growth in 2026.
8. Thank God in advance.
Tell God thank you before He intervenes, answers, redeems. Whisper your gratitude aloud before you get out of bed or in a gratitude journal at the start of your day. Thank God for His trustworthiness and grace, for His kindness and the comfort of His presence, for His guidance and perfect timing. No matter how 2026 turns out, it can be a year you turned first to Him. A year you boldly trusted that God is who He says He is–every time.
Read more about nevertheless gratitude HERE.
A Blessing for the New Year
I’ll leave you with a prayer of blessing as we head into the new year:
In every circumstance, may you stand boldly on the constancy of Christ.
Even before it all makes sense, may you praise God for who He always is.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Just a friend over here in your corner,
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