Rise Up new
Do you enjoy NEW as much as I do?
New year. New you. New start. New nails. New hair.
I like new, but I don’t always like what NEW requires.
For example, I like waking up. Aren’t you glad you woke up today? Scripture says the Lord’s mercies are new every morning… but I hate the sound of an alarm clock.
I like a new car, but I don’t like a car payment.
I love the smell of a new house, but if I’m honest, I don’t love cleaning it or maintaining it.
I like “new,” but one of the things I both love and hate about new is change.
I like an H-E-B (my favorite grocer) refresh, but I hate it when they move my stuff around and I can’t find anything!
I love a new road, but I hate the roadblocks and detours it takes to build one.
I’m wondering how many of us are approaching new with an old mindset.
We want new, but we don’t want the mindset new requires.
We don’t want the patience, consistency, perseverance, discomfort or endurance it takes.
Have you ever found yourself here?
You want a new body in 2026, so you go buy all the new equipment, the Lululemon leggings, the matching pink weights, thinking, If I just had the new stuff, I’d look like Jillian Michaels.
But instead of becoming new, we just bought something new… and it sits there gathering dust until it becomes old, and we post it on Facebook Marketplace labeled “like new.”
We do the same thing spiritually.
We buy the journaling Bible. The highlighters. The tabs. The accessories.
But the Word never gets read.
So here’s my question for you this year:
Are you just going to dress new, wearing your lulu while binge watching Netflix?
Or are you ready to become new?
After 430 years of slavery, everything changed for Israel.
They went to bed poor and woke up with gold, new wardrobes and jewelry.
They went to bed tenants and woke up with new territory.
They went to bed despised and woke up favored by God and by their enemies.
They went to bed slaves and woke up free.
But here’s the problem: to be made new, they had to do more than dress new, they had to think new.
When it was time to possess the land, they still thought small… and they achieved small.
That’s exactly what the enemy wants for you.
He wants you to dress up your problems while thinking the same old way.
If you really want 2026 to be different, friend, you’re going to have to think different.
You can’t keep replaying the same old stories in your head.
You’ve got to speak back to what’s speaking to you.
You’ve got to interrupt your thoughts mid-flow and demand a different meditation.
Philippians 4:8 (KJV) says:
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
A.W. Tozer said it this way:
“Our thoughts are the decorations inside the sanctuary where we live… Your thoughts pretty much decide the mood, weather, and climate inside your heart, and God considers your thoughts a part of you.”
So friend, are you living an episode of Hoarders in your head?
Or are you ready for a 2026 HGTV makeover embracing new and all the renovation that it takes to get there?
I encourage you today to start seeing what God sees in you. You are not small.
Stop caring about what you think others think, and start thinking the way God thinks.
Care less about things making sense and more about being obedient to the voice of God, the One who will part the deepest waters for you.
Start speaking back to what’s speaking to you, because what you choose to ignore will seep through your life.
Let 2026 be the year you take the land, do it scared if you have to, but do it knowing you are more than a conquer in Christ!
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
