New Year, New You?

The calendar turns, the culture starts chanting its annual liturgy, and the same familiar promises come back around: new year, new you. We draft our resolutions with serious faces and hopeful hearts—health, productivity, better habits, and fewer regrets. None of these things are evil in themselves. Some may even be wise and provide much benefit. But as followers of Jesus, let’s be honest: a year can be filled with impressive goals and still be spiritually hollow. Even empty. And yes, even purposeless—without any eternal ramifications.

In the end, there’s really only one thing that matters—knowing Jesus more and making Him known to others. Everything else is secondary. I say this not because daily responsibilities don’t matter, but because they only find their proper place when they are ordered under the one reality that actually holds your life together: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the Christian year is not finally measured by what you achieve, but by what Christ has done—once-for-all outside of you—and what He continues to give you—again and again—for you.

The One Resolution That Matters

If you are going to “resolve” anything in 2026, resolve this: to be centered on Christ crucified and risen. To know Him—not as an idea, not as a religious mascot, not as a vague inspiration—but as your Savior who bled under Pontius Pilate, was buried, and rose on the third day for your justification.

Everything else you set out to improve—marriage, work, health, finances, mental discipline—will either become an idol that crushes you or a gift you can receive with thanksgiving. Christ alone puts those things in their rightful order.

The world will say: You need a better version of yourself—new year, new you. But the Church dares to say something far better: You need Jesus. And not merely in general, but concretely: Jesus who dies for sinners, Jesus who rises for the dead, and Jesus who gives Himself to you in mercy.

So yes, pursue wisdom. Make plans. Work diligently. But don’t confuse self-improvement with salvation. And don’t let the noise of resolutions drown out the one Name by which you are saved.

How Do I Know Jesus More?

This question is where many Christians get quietly stuck. We want to “know Jesus more,” but we aren’t sure how. We assume it must mean stirring up stronger feelings, or having a more intense spiritual experience, or discovering some private key to deeper Christian living.

The answer to this question is quite simple: you know Jesus where He has promised to be—in His Word and Sacraments.

You do not climb into heaven to find Christ. Christ comes down to seek you.

Jesus locates Himself in specific, external gifts so that your faith is not forced to chase shifting emotions or inward certainty. He gives you Himself in ways that can actually be received.

• In the Word: Christ speaks. He convicts. He absolves. He comforts. He creates and sustains faith. If you want to know Jesus more in 2026, don’t begin by asking how you feel about Him. Begin by listening to Him. Obey what He says. Set aside faithful time to read and study Holy Scripture—not as a box to check, but as the living voice of God that does what it says.

• In the Sacraments: Christ does not merely talk about forgiveness—He delivers it. In Baptism He names and claims you as His very own. In Baptism, you are named a child of God. In Absolution He speaks mercy into your actual sins. And at the altar, He gives you what He promised: His true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. The Supper is not spiritual symbolism for the spiritually successful. It does not represent anything. Quite the contrary. It is medicine for the sick, food for the hungry, and strength for the weak—the very body and blood of Christ that keeps us in the one true faith until we’re called into our heavenly dwelling.

This is how God strengthens you to do what He has called you to do. Not by handing you a motivational speech, but by giving you Christ Himself—crucified and risen—again and again.

If your life in 2026 is going to be centered, it will not be centered by willpower. It will be centered by receiving: receiving the Word, receiving the forgiveness, receiving the Supper, receiving the mercy that keeps you alive in faith when your strength runs thin.

Jesus and His Church Belong Together

At some point, someone will say it—maybe even well-meaningly: “You don’t need the church. All you need is Jesus.” It sounds pious, but it isn’t true.

You need Jesus and the Church for whom He died. This is true because Jesus gives Himself through His Church. The New Testament does not speak of “Jesus” as a private possession and the Church as an optional add-on. Christ is the Head; the Church is His Body. He loves her, washes her, feeds her, and sends her.

And why does that matter? Because this is where:

• God’s Word is proclaimed into your ears as Law and Gospel for sinners.

• Christ is given at His table as a gift for the repentant.

• You are joined to the communion of saints, where burdens are carried, prayers are offered, and faith is sustained in ordinary, embodied life together.

  
  

The community of believers is also where you are formed for the outward movement of the Christian life: making Jesus known to the world. The Church is not a spiritual club for the already strong. It is the place where Christ gathers the weak, forgives them, strengthens them, and then sends them—into vocations, neighborhoods, workplaces, families—bearing His mercy in word and deed.

Detached from the Church, “all I need is Jesus” often becomes “all I need is me, my preferences, and my private spirituality.”

Christ did not die to create isolated believers; He died to redeem a people, to make one Body, to gather a communion that lives by His gifts.

A Simple Way to Step into 2026

If you want a faithful “rule of life” for 2026, keep it simple and concrete:

• Be where Jesus has promised to be.

• Listen to His Word.

• Return to your Baptism in daily repentance and faith.

• Receive His body and blood often and reverently.

• Stay connected to His Church.

  
  

And when you fail—and you will—do not turn your failures into despair or your successes into pride. Return again to the center: Christ crucified, buried, risen, and given to you.

The Christian life is not driven by the strength of your resolutions. It is sustained by the steadfastness of your Savior.

In 2026, may your life be centered where God has centered salvation: in Jesus Christ, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification—and who still comes to His people with forgiveness, life, and salvation.