New Year's Resolutions for 2026, by Aaron Hecht

Brothers and sisters, I'm writing this on the afternoon of 30 December, 2025, about 30 hours before the new year of 2026 will begin. Like every year around this time, people all over the world are making those infamous "New Year's Resolutions."

I've gone through the cycle many times myself, making the resolutions to, for instance, "eat more healthy" in the New Year. Usually, the resolutions didn't last long and soon they'd been completely forgotten.

I've never claimed to be a prophet, but I'm gonna make a prediction.

This year, it needs to be different, for all of us. We need to make resolutions and stick with them, because 2026 isn't going to be like previous years. 2026 is a year in which many of the things we rely on for our provision, safety, and security are going to come under severe strain, and it's not difficult to imagine that some of them might even break under that strain.

I'm talking about everything from our health insurance provider to the grocery store to the police and fire department, hospitals, municipal, local, state and federal governments, the schools your children attend, the post office, the military, the banks, the stock market, the electricity grid, the sewage system and everything in between. 

It would take me a long time to explain why I think all these things are going to come under so much stress in 2026, but the short version is that my job requires me to consume mass quantities of information about current events on a daily basis, and that's how it looks to me after doing this every day of my life for the past 20 years or so.

This video (I don't post other people's videos in my blogs very often) is from a channel that specializes in prepping, and I don't necessarily vouch for the advice the guy in the video gives, but I certainly do agree with the rundown he gives of things we need to be paying attention to in the upcoming new year. If you're doing anything to "prep" for difficult times, don't stop. If you're not doing anything yet, it might be time to start. It's never too late and even a little bit of preparation is better than nothing.

Here in Israel, we're being told very candidly by the government that there is a high likelihood of renewed war with Hezbollah and probably also Iran in the new year, and we're also being told that the air defense systems that shot down most of the ballistic missiles Iran fired at us during the 12-Day War in June have been depleted and might not be able to protect us as well in a future conflict as they did in the last one. Even if there are no more wars, there are all kinds of other problems we're staring down the barrel of over here, including tax increases, cuts to government services and ongoing controversies regarding the judicial system, the Ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community and the list just goes on and on.

So, what am I resolving to do in the new year, and what am I advising you to resolve to do?

Three things.

Pray more.

Read the Word more.

Fellowship with my fellow Believers more.

Those are the three things that connect me to the only thing that I can depend on for my provision, safety and security.

Brothers and sisters, please hear me. In 2026, like never before, everything that can be shaken will be shaken, including many things most of us thought would never be shaken. So resolve, in the New Year, to get closer to God and closer to your local congregation and closer to the Body of Christ generally. Pray for your pastoral leadership, pray for your political leadership, pray for your family and your friends, read the One Year Bible with your children, or with your roommate, or your dog, or whoever it is you live with. Do not neglect these things. As the old song goes, "upon the rock of Christ I stand, all other ground is sinking sand."

That's always been true, but it's even more true now than it ever was before.

Happy New Year.