December 31, 2025 Devo

I’m doing a two-part sermon series at church right now focused on maximizing the New Year that lies before us. It’s called “Out with the Old, In with the New.” The big idea is that our best lives are lived when we are intentional, strategic, and we are walking in the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Most people simply make resolutions this time of year without any real commitment to keep them. They are neither thoughtful nor determined. Which is why, of course, resolutions are rarely kept.
But what if we decided that life was too short and our lives as believers too important to simply keep repeating the same mistakes and living with the same half-heartedness one year after another? What if we decided that our lives are opportunities and gifts from God that deserve us living them to the fullest? After all, as I had my people repeat on Sunday (and will again this Sunday), “If nothing ever changes, then nothing ever changes.”
Our verse today, and the last verse we’ll explore on our “Walk Through the Psalms,” is a PERFECT verse for us to pray on New Year’s Eve day. The psalmist makes an appeal to God to help him see what God sees and know what God knows. He asks God to expose the sin that’s hiding in his life. He knows that to fully live the life God wants, he has to crucify the old man that is still lurking within. He has to break the chains of unhealthy habits. He has to admit and confront places of disobedience. He has to let go of bad attitudes, toxic relationships, and fears that are holding him back. He knows that New Life begins as we put to death the Old Life. So he sits with God to thoughtfully identify what has to be set aside in order to move forward.
Then notice what the Psalmist prays. “Lead me along the path of everlasting life.” He doesn’t ask God to follow him or even to be with him as he goes forward. He asks God to lead. The psalmist didn’t want just any life. He wanted the life that God had for him. So he asks God to show him, teach him, and go before him. He had enough of living life HIS way. He now wants to do it GOD’S way. Is that what YOU want as well? Maybe the Apostle Paul said it best in Galatians 2:20. “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Maybe, if we do the same, we’ll do more than make a New Year’s resolution. Maybe we’ll have a New Year’s TRANSFORMATION. That’s God’s Word for you today. (I hope you’ll join me for our devotional journey in 2026, “Powerful Words from the Prophets.” God bless!)