The Year Behind, The Altar Ahead

We are already into the days of this new year, and we find ourselves at the threshold between reflection on the past and readiness for what is to come. I find myself in that sacred space between what was and what will be. It's a thin place, where memories of twelve months press close and the blank canvas of a new year stretches out before us, both inviting and unknown.

This is the season when we are tempted to make our lists: accomplishment tallied, failures catalogued, resolutions drafted with the fervor of New Year's optimism. But I wonder if God is calling us to something deeper than accounting. Perhaps He's inviting us to the altar instead of the calculator.

Looking Back with Honest Eyes

This past year what has it been for you? For some, it's been a year of breakthrough, of long-awaited answers to persistent prayers. You have seen God move in ways that left you breathless with gratitude. For others, it's been a wilderness season, where the presence you once felt so tangibly seemed distant, where the prayers felt like they hit the ceiling and fell back down.

Maybe you are somewhere in between. Maybe you started the year on fire and ended it barely smoldering. Maybe you wandered from the altar you once knew, and the year is closing with you feeling far from home. Or perhaps you have just discovered Jesus for the first time, and everything is new and overwhelming and beautiful all at once.

Wherever you find yourself, can I remind you of something? God is not surprised by where you are. He has not lost track of you in the chaos of 2025. The backslider is just as present in His mind as the revivalist. The seeker is just as precious as the seasoned saint.

The Ache for Something More

If I have learned anything in ministry, it's this: we are all desperate for the presence of God, whether we know it or not. Every distraction we chase, every substitute we settle for, every compromise we make, they are all just evidence of a hunger that only His presence can satisfy.

The lost are looking for Him in all the wrong places. The backslidden are haunted by the memory of what they once had. And even those of us who walk with Him daily know there are depths of His presence we have not yet explored, intimacy with Him we have not yet experienced.

This is the holy dissatisfaction that revival is born from, this ache for more of God, this refusal to settle for religion when relationship is available, this crying out for His manifest presence when we have grown too comfortable with His absence.

What the New Year Holds

I don't know what 2026 holds. I do not have prophetic words about dates and times or specific events. But I know this: God is looking for hungry hearts. He's listening for desperate prayers. He is watching for altars that burn with fresh fire.

The question is not what God will do in the new year. The question is: what will we make room for? Will we clear space in our cluttered lives for His presence? Will we trade our busyness for His stillness? Will we return to the altars we have abandoned?

For those who are lost and looking; He can be found. He is closer than you think, more willing than you imagine. The very fact that you are searching is evidence that He is already drawing you nearer.

For those who have wandered away, the Father is watching for you. There is no distance too far, no sin too great, no time too long. The altar is still there. The fire still burns. Come home.

For those who are faithfully walking, don't grow weary. Do not settle. Press in deeper. There is always more of God to discover, more of His presence to experience, for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

An Invitation

As this new year begins, I want to invite you to something simple but profound: look for His presence above everything else. Not His blessings, not His gifts, not even His power, seek Him. Pursue intimacy with God like your life depends on it, because it does.

Make 2026 the year you stop playing church and start encountering God. The year you stop going through religious motions and start experiencing genuine revival in your own heart. This year you move from the shallows into the deep waters of His presence.

The altar is waiting. His presence is available. The invitation stands.

Will you come?