Before You Plan 2026, Remember 2025
As we approach a new year, it’s so tempting to rush ahead — setting goals, dreaming big, planning what’s next. Vision boards. Word-of-the-year lists. Fresh starts.
And none of that is wrong.
But before we step into 2026, there’s something deeply Biblical and incredibly powerful that we’re often tempted to skip.
Remembering.
Scripture reminds us again and again that God doesn’t just tell His people to move forward. He tells them to remember. Remember where He brought them from. Remember what He did. Remember how faithful He was.
When we only look ahead, we forget what God has already done.
We forget the prayers He answered in 2025.
We forget the doors He opened, the battles He fought, and the ways He provided when we didn’t see a way.
And when we forget His faithfulness, we often step into a new season with doubt instead of confidence.
Before you step into 2026, I want to encourage you to pause and take a spiritual inventory of 2025. Not of just what went wrong but also what God did for you and for loved ones.
Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
We can’t number our days forward until we’ve taken time to count them backward.
So grab a journal, your notes app, or whatever you have handy right now.
Write down every answered prayer from 2025 you can think of whether in your eyes it is big or small. It’s so important to not skip the ones that feel “small.”
Here are a few prompts to help you think.
That job.
That healing.
That relationship.
That breakthrough.
That unexpected provision when you weren’t sure just how you were going to make it.
Write it down.
Because what we document, we remember. What we put ink to becomes sealed in our minds and in our hearts.
Then, write down the doors God closed in 2025.
The job you didn’t get.
The relationship that ended.
The opportunity that fell through.
The house someone else bought.
And next to each one, write these words:
“God was protecting me.”
Proverbs 16:9 reminds us, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
Closed doors aren’t rejection. They are simply redirection.
Now ask yourself:
What did 2025 teach me about God?
What did it teach me about myself?
About faith, obedience, surrender?
James 1 tells us that trials produce perseverance, character, and maturity.
So what maturity did you gain this year?
Write that down too.
In Joshua 4, God instructed Israel to take twelve stones from the Jordan River and build a memorial. Why? So future generations would ask, “What do these stones mean?” — and they could say, “This is where God brought us through.”
Your list is your memorial stone.
When 2026 gets hard — and it will — you’ll come back to this list and remember:
God was faithful then. And He will be faithful now.
Lamentations 3:22–23 says, “His mercies are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
But we can’t fully trust Him for new mercies if we forget the old ones.
So before you make resolutions for 2026, do this:
Write down what God did in 2025.
Title it: “2025 — What God Did.”
And step into the new year not just with hope…
But with proof of God’s goodness and faithfulness
With the Assurance that He will do the same in 2026!!
