Resolved: To Believe What God Says About Us
Every New Year, people tend to make resolutions.
Some are big. Some are small. Some last until February. Some don’t even last a week.
We resolve to eat less, move more, worry less, scroll less, be better, do better, try harder.
And none of those are bad things.
But here’s the problem with most New Year’s resolutions: they start with what I think I should become, and they rely on how strong I think I am.
So this year, I want to suggest something different.
Not a resolution about doing more, but a resolution about believing more.
In 2026, let us resolve to believe what God says about us and to live accordingly.
1. God’s starting point is not self-improvement, but identity
Listen to what God says about us his people.
In Deuteronomy 7, God says: “You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you… not because you were more numerous… but because the Lord loved you.”
God doesn’t say: “Try harder so that I might choose you.”
He says: “I chose you because I love you.”
That means our lives don’t begin with performance, they begin with belonging.
Peter echoes this in his first Epistle, chapter 2:
“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession… once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.”
That’s not something you earn. That’s not something you learn. That’s something you are given.
So here is the first resolution:
In 2026, I will believe that I am chosen, not accidental; loved, not tolerated; called, not overlooked.
2. God chose us on purpose and for a purpose
Jesus puts it even more clearly in John 15: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit.”
That means your life is not random. Your year is not pointless. Your presence here is not an afterthought.
Before you chose Jesus, Jesus chose you.
And he didn’t choose you just to survive another year, but to bear fruit: love, faithfulness, courage, kindness, hope.
So instead of resolving: “I must be more impressive this year,” we resolve: “I will trust that God has already placed me where I am for a reason.”
3. God’s plans are good even when the road is hard
Many people know the words of Jeremiah 29:11: “I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
But we often forget that when those words were spoken, they were spoken to people who were displaced, discouraged, and far from home. God doesn’t promise an easy year. He promises hope and a certain future.
So in 2026, when things don’t go as planned, when prayers take longer than we hoped, when the road bends in unexpected ways, we resolve to believe that God is still at work and that he is still for me.
4. God will not leave us to do this alone
So finally, hear this promise from Hebrews 13: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
God will never leave us on good days. He will not leave us on bad days. He will not leave us when we succeed, nor will he leave us when we fail.
In Matthew 28:20, Jesus says: “I am always with you, even to the end of the age.”
So here is the final resolution, perhaps the most important one:
In 2026, I will stop living as though I am on my own.
God is with us in the classroom, in the office, in the hospital waiting room, at the kitchen table, and in the quiet moments no one else sees.
So as we step into a new year, let’s make a different kind of resolution.
Not: “I will try harder.”
But: “I will trust deeper.”
Not: “I must become someone else.”
But: “I will live as who God already says I am.”
I am Chosen.
I am Loved.
I am Called.
I am Held.
I am never abandoned.
And as we believe that, slowly, faithfully, imperfectly, our lives will begin to reflect it.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2026
Amen & Amen
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