How To Make A New Year … New!

Psalm 10:4 “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

Happy new year! Hope it’s your best one yet.

How to make it actual new? Well… Only God can truly make a new year “new”… “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” …Everything he does is new, and never loses it’s shine! Meanwhile, of our little attempts to make something new, the Bible says “Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.” Isn’t trying to make things new without Christ getting old for you just yet?

You’ll find something new, as timeless and ageless as God himself, when God sits on the throne of your life, in your heart and mind. He’s already seated in heaven, that’s why he should sit there also “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.”

Why try pulling the proverbial rabbit out the hat again this year trying to perform the magic of newness when you can have the power of new life in the risen Christ Jesus? It’s just going to be more illusion and deceiving yourself if you think you have the power to bring something new out of the same old!

There will be nothing new in your life, regardless of the turning of the calendar, until God takes power in your life, until the King of kings is coronated in your heart “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.”!! … of course the enemy will cry “Treason, treason”! because that’s unimaginable, you’re not allowed to do that! I know, I know, but you’re going to have to put the old master, the devil, out, because Jesus isn’t going to be a co-regent of your life, after all, as he said, Satan “hath nothing in me”.

In the book of Esther, king Ahasuerus gave wicked Haman great authority in his kingdom, and maybe for a long time you’ve promoted Satan in your life, but how much latitude are you going to give him and how much deceit is he going to work and damage he going to do before you eventually revoke his leisure in your life? Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and he will in your life too… but you’ve gotta choose that too! …Until Satan is put out, you will have nothing ultimately to celebrate in this new year!

Maybe you think… well that’s not me, I’m a Christian. But there are many Christians today who’s identity in Christ is just a dubious as the many other identities people are rolling with these days… going by the name “Christian” while exactly zero power of the living Saviour resides within. Oftentimes though advertised as “occupied”… in reality, there’s no one home, it’s empty house, there’s no king seated, no power within “Where the word of a king is, there is power” and “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

We are living in a time where people do not have room for God in their heart, mind and life. That’s why this world is becoming more and more unsafe. And even if the word was sown in their heart, it’s quickly choked out by a billion weeds. Are you going to give Jesus room in your life in the new year? He’s not going to live in your granny flat out the back. We’ve just come off Christmas, where we remember the birth of Christ… maybe… but don’t forget that his birth was observed in a cattle shed because there was no room for him in the inn. People remain as callously empty and cold and unwelcoming to him today.

Jesus says “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” … perhaps this year he will knock for the last time.

For today I have quoted a Psalm about God not being in all the wicked man’s thoughts. That’s a big word “all”, in that verse. For many people, God is not in their thoughts, and this year may well be much more of the same. But we really need to get him in there! because “in every thing ye are enriched by him”

… In Genesis 33, we read about the reconciliation (of sorts) of two brothers… Jacob and Esau.

They hadn’t seen each other for twenty years, and a lot had changed in both their lives, they now had families, Esau had settled in mount Seir with his family, he didn’t choose Canaan land for his possession!, but he was pretty worldly successful man.

He’d been getting on with life! So had Jacob. Maybe you once again this year will be too.

But there was one key difference between these two men, which made all the difference… God was in all Jacob’s thoughts, but God was not in Esau’s thoughts at all. This was their difference which led to a divide in destiny as great as heaven and hell.

When they were reunited, Jacob began telling Esau all about how God had been gracious to him, and what God had done in his life… and guess what… Esau was not the least bit interested, and he looked past all that to the stuff that Jacob had.

What you like to talk about and don’t does betray who you are and who you aren’t people.

Esau did not live with God in all his thoughts. He did not like to retain God in his knowledge as Romans 1 says, and although he had everything… he had nothing, a vain empty life while “having it all”… because he didn’t have Christ in his life.

Having Christ in your life or not will be the point of difference in anything and everything we go through this new year and forever. Doesn’t matter how good or how bad. Take the how bad… for example, a Christian may get cancer. A nonChristian may get cancer. One has God in it, one does not. Christianity is not an escape pass from life’s harsh realities or inevitabilities, but it is having Emmanuel “God with us” in it… working all things together for good, because we have eternal purpose and hope and life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you do not have Christ in what you’re going through, good or bad, there is no reason or purpose in it, there is no consolation in it, there is not Christ in there with you in it. It’s suffering for suffering’s sake, because of the fallen world we live in, not suffering with hope and reason and purpose woven in. When the three Hebrews got thrown in the fire, God walked with them in the fire. Moses turned aside from his shepherd life at the burning bush because God was in it. This is a mystery that Paul wrote of in Colossians “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Christ in you, the hope of glory would make your new year new.

Having God in our thoughts, our mind, our conscience is what separates us from the animals. Without God, we are literally just an animal, with no more purpose or memory or reason or calling than they have… no matter how high we get in society or in others minds for honour yet “Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.” Thank God he sent a Saviour in John 3:16 “… that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.

In Job 35, Elihu was speaking to Job to try and help him as he traversed great trial of his faith, physical pain and emotional suffering… and in trying to make sense of it all he told Job that humans hurt other humans. That’s not God’s fault. We are all born into a world living under the curse and consequences of sin, which humans introduced and we perpetuate also… which means bad things happen.

But bad things with or without God are experienced very differently, for a very different purpose. How will you navigate bad things this year? … Perhaps you’ve seen a nature documentary, where you see the wildebeest crossing the river only to get ripped apart and eaten alive by crocodiles. They never do go further downstream to find a different crossing where a hundred crocs aren’t waiting, evolution would say after a million years they might’ve learnt that before changing their dna… but nevermind. When the crocodiles latch on to the poor wildebeest, it cries out in pain… it’s horrible to watch. The Bible says the whole creation is groaning under the weight of sin. Not burning coal… sin. That’s what’s hurting our planet, and if you loved the planet so much, you’d want freedom from sin before necessary co2.

But when that wildebeest cries out, it cries out because it’s in pain, not in conscience toward God. I’m not sure what hurts you’ve taken into this new year or will incur in this new year, but if they don’t take you to saving faith in God, though they hurt, they will be in vain. Maybe God has or will let some things happen under his providence to revive your dead conscience to God.

Elihu said to Job, though they cry… yet “But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night; Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?” See, you are more than a wildebeest. And do you want to have a life more than just fallen and inevitable animalistic living for self? …Look up. It was when the prodigal son battling the hogs for their food looked up to heaven that his sanity restored. He was born for more, to more, as you are… and yet was settling for pig slop because he’d chosen sin over the Saviour. Like him, you will find the life you were created for only when you look up and cry out to God, when you bring him into your life as urgently as Hezekiah’s tunnel builders did as they did bringing water into the city as they faced imminent Assryian invasion. Jesus Christ’s water of life, a fountain that never grows old, bubbling up inside you would be a wonderful new thing to bring into your life this year wouldn’t it!

If you choose another year without God, you really will choose no more purpose than any animal out there. And you can’t say I’m being mean, because if you believe evolution, your own belief states you’re just an animal who’s highest purpose and calling in life is to outcompete other animals, and indulge your appetites and lusts for a short time here before you die like a dog. And guess what, evolution may appeal to you, because it subtracts God from your thinking, taking him out of the way from standing against your sin in your thoughts… but it also sucks for you too, because you may be on the wrong end of its merciless equation. What on earth makes you think you’re the outcompeter … not the outcompeted for survival?

Look, did you know that God allowed a great king, Nebuchadnezzar, whom is described as a king of kings (not THE King of kings), who forgot about God, who God was not in all his thoughts… when he started believing himself, as you may have been instructed to by your little counsellors… did you know he lost his mind, and he was out grazing in the field like an ox… FOR YEARS! It was when he looked up and blessed the Lord God of heaven that his sanity and understanding returned as a gift from God to him. To find higher in life you need to find him who is higher, from heaven, the Lord Jesus, God who the Bible says humbles himself even to be in heaven, let alone be born in a body to die on this earth!

It is God, the knowledge of God in us, that separates us from the animals, it is his knowledge personally which is what keeps us sane “sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed, and in his right mind”. Absence of which is making our society go insane, just have a look around. Pro abortionists believe little babies in the wombs are a clump of cells some animal parasite not a precious human being. Life is getting cheaper and cheaper because we took God out our thoughts. No wonder God is going to give this world a beast, the beast, to believe in… read Revelation, amazing things are coming!

But for you and your new year personally… factor God in! He’ll put the “new” in the new year for you. And yes, many will try to find newness in everything else BUT him… king Solomon had more means to exhaust every avenue to newness without God than you or I ever will, wine, wealth, women etc … and he did in futility, only to conclude in despair that “all is vanity”. You know what isn’t vain and pointless … God!

Did you know God never gets old? Did you know he doesn’t corrupt and decay? And those who trust in him get to share the same, having Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever to navigate life by… that’s why for them it just gets better while each passing year for those without him just get older “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

Noone has been as close to the perfect day as we are standing here in 2026! While everything grows older, “thou art the same and thy years fail not”. Turn to Christ, not away from him in the new year! He would do a new thing in your life, Isaiah 43:19 “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” Hopefully such a new thing that Christ has done will spring forth for you in the new year… rivers in the desert …amen!

Blog 2025 2026 Bible End God Hope Jesus Life Meaning New Purpose Salvation Thoughts Year