Happy New Year. As we step into January 2026, many of us feel the familiar pull to make resolutions. We think about improving our health, adjusting habits, and starting fresh.
These goals can be good. But for us as United Methodists, our resolutions are meant to reach deeper than self-improvement. They are grounded in a lifelong journey toward holiness.
Beginning the Year With the Right Goal
This January, I invite you to begin the year with a clear and faithful goal in view: sanctification.
John Wesley taught that God’s grace does not stop at forgiveness. Yes, we are justified by grace. But we are also continually shaped by grace. Sanctification is the ongoing work of God, forming us in love and purity over time.
The Christian life is not only about getting to heaven someday. It is about being perfected in love here and now.
Becoming More Like Christ
The goal of faith is not simply belief in Christ. It is becoming more like Christ.
The Apostle Paul writes that we are called to be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). This is a high calling. It is also a hopeful one.
If the end we keep in sight is a heart fully shaped by God’s love, then the beginning of the year matters. How we live now forms who we are becoming.
Renewing Our Commitment to the Means of Grace
Sanctification does not happen by accident. It takes place as we open our lives to the work of the Holy Spirit.
As you begin 2026, I invite you to renew your commitment to the spiritual disciplines, often called the means of grace. These practices place us where God can shape and refine us.
Below are three areas to focus on this year.
1. Diligence in Personal Grace
Personal grace is practiced in the quiet places of life.
This includes:
- Faithful private prayer
- Daily study of Scripture
- Honest reflection on how God is at work in your life
Sanctification begins when we make time to listen. When we slow down and attend to God, the Spirit begins shaping our hearts.
2. Growth in Corporate Grace
Faith is never meant to be lived alone.
Corporate grace is found when we actively participate in the life of the church:
- Worship
- Holy Communion
- Small groups and Bible studies
Christian community is where love is practiced in real, sometimes messy ways. It is where we learn patience, humility, and forgiveness. As Scripture reminds us, iron sharpens iron.
3. Holiness in Action
Holiness is not only inward. It is lived out.
As you serve this year, consider not just what you do, but how and why you do it. Service inside the church and ministry beyond our walls should flow from a heart shaped by love.
Our actions are meant to reflect the compassion and mercy of Christ.
Partnering With God’s Grace in 2026
This journey toward holiness is not powered by willpower alone. It is sustained by God’s transforming grace. Still, we are called to be willing partners in that work.
As we enter the New Year and move through the season of Epiphany, may the Spirit reveal the areas of our lives that still need refinement. Keep the end in sight. Press on toward the calling of holiness.
A Blessing for the New Year
May God bless your pursuit of holiness in 2026.
May your heart be shaped by grace.
And may love guide all that you do.