Resting Into a New Year — Living From Peace, Not Pressure

Devotional week 52

"This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it." — Isaiah 30:15 NIV

As we approach Christmas and the transition into 2026, we enter a season of celebration, reflection, and anticipation. The new year draws near, bringing challenges, decisions, and expectations.

The world around us feels increasingly charged with urgency and uncertainty. News, conversations, and forecasts about the future can easily stir anxiety and pressure, as if everything must be resolved before the year ends.

This constant noise from haste, fear, and the urge to control, can draw us away from peace. Even as followers of Christ, we risk moving through this time driven more by pressure than by trust, more by anxiety than by faith.

Isaiah 30:15 speaks with remarkable clarity:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength.”

God calls His people not to inactivity, but to a profound reorientation. Stop running, turn back to Him, and learn to rest before taking action.

Advent teaches the same spiritual principle. Biblical faith lives in the tension between promise and fulfilment. Waiting is not a weakness, but mature trust. Isaiah points to this kind of waiting: a stillness that arises from the certainty that God remains sovereign, even when the future is unclear.

As we step into 2026, we are invited to carry this rest with us. Whether we are still making plans or have already set out our year in full, we can always pause to examine our hearts in God’s presence. Choose to live from the peace Christ gives, not the anxiety that insists on taking hold.

Challenge for 2026

Take time to quiet your heart before God. Review your plans and decisions in the light of His presence and ask yourself: Am I living from pressure or from trust? Let resting in God be the foundation upon which the entire year is lived.

Prayer

Lord, as we move through this season of transition, teach us to rest in You. Deliver us from haste born of fear and the illusion of control. May we enter the new year rooted in Your peace, trusting that our strength lies in stillness before You. Amen.