New year passages are often quoted as personal forecasts. Read in context, they are usually promises made to communities in difficult circumstances.
That makes them sturdier, not weaker, as a way to begin a year.
Compiled and reviewed by the Verse & Light editorial team · last reviewed 2026-09-20 · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
““Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
Context: A new thing promised to exiles, with a road in the wilderness rather than an easier route.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the LORD, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.”
Context: Addressed to people told to build houses in Babylon and wait seventy years.
“Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Context: Straining forward, written by someone with plenty behind him worth forgetting.
“So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Context: A prayer about the length of life and the wisdom to use it.
“Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.””
Context: Courage commanded at the start of something genuinely new and frightening.
“It is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.”
Context: A year is made of mornings, and the supply is described as daily.
Original devotional writing by the Verse & Light editorial team — not part of the Bible text
God, thank you for a year that is still mostly unwritten. Give me courage at the start and steadiness in the middle. Amen.
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