New Beginnings: A Life of Holy Living
by: Jahan Berns
December 31, 2025
Do you want to know God’s marching orders for you and me in 2026? 1 Peter 1:16 and Hebrews 12:14. These passages are like mighty waves splashing into our faces, rousing us from our beguiled stupor, making us realize that our certificates of salvation are merely ground zero, and that there is a lot more to God than we have experienced or even been willing to embrace thus far. 1 Peter 1:16 is arresting in its command: “So you must be holy because I am holy!” In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby wrote: “Have we so conformed ourselves to a sinful world that we are unsatisfied with holy living? Have we sunk so far below God’s standard that when someone does live as God intended, we call that person “super spiritual”? If we only compare our personal holiness to those around us, we may be deceived into believing that we are living a consecrated life.”
Listen: This year, we cannot remain comfortable with our dirty, tainted, and unholy thought and behavioral patterns. We also have to let go of our own concept of morality. God is our standard for holiness, nothing less, nothing more! God is calling us higher—to a life of holy living. Yes our souls may be tainted with sin, but if only we could come to God, dirty but trembling, reverent and awestruck in His presence, if only we could kneel at His feet like Isaiah did and cry out for cleansing instead of just skipping into God’s presence engrossed and obsessed by our “God you need to get this done for me” attitude. Then and only then would God bestow upon us a holiness which opens our eyes to see Him; then and only then would the world around us truly see the love and power of Christ actively working in and through us.
The best indication of holiness is a transformed heart. Because the entire Bible shows God as irrevocably holy, requiring men to be holy, why don’t you commit this year to running hard into God’s embrace, and fully surrendering to Jesus Christ in all things? Surrendering is simply your reasonable act of worship (Romans 12:1-2). When you surrender, the Lord Himself will teach and lead you into His holiness.
This great teaching video on surrender will encourage and inspire you as you pursue a lifestyle of holiness in 2026. Happy new year!
With love and blessings,
Jahan
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Do you want to know God’s marching orders for you and me in 2026? 1 Peter 1:16 and Hebrews 12:14. These passages are like mighty waves splashing into our faces, rousing us from our beguiled stupor, making us realize that our certificates of salvation are merely ground zero; and that there is a lot more to God than we have experienced or even been willing to embrace thus far.