Bible Verses for the New Year: 15 Verses for a Fresh Start

Bible verses for looking back on the year

Every verse in this guide is quoted from the World English Bible, with a line about where it comes from. Before you plan the new year, these help you look honestly at the old one.

• 1 Samuel 7:12. After a battle, Samuel set up a stone and named it Ebenezer, which means stone of help, saying, “The LORD helped us until now.” A marker for everything you got through this year, the hard parts included.
• Psalm 65:11. “You crown the year with your bounty. Your carts overflow with abundance.” A harvest song from David, who looks back on a full year and gives God the credit.
• Lamentations 3:22–23. “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.” Written in the ruins of Jerusalem. Every morning is a fresh start, January 1 included.

Bible verses about a fresh start

• Isaiah 43:18–19. “Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.” God’s word to exiles who could only see what they had lost.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.” Paul isn’t describing a resolution. He means a whole new life.
• Ezekiel 36:26. “I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.” The change God promises starts on the inside, and he is the one who makes it.
• Philippians 3:13–14. “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.” Paul, writing from prison, pictures a runner who doesn’t look back.

Bible verses for new year plans and resolutions

The Bible is all for making plans. What it warns against is planning as if you held the future yourself.

• Psalm 90:12. “So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” From the only psalm credited to Moses, about how short a life is.
• Proverbs 16:3. “Commit your deeds to the LORD, and your plans shall succeed.” The Hebrew word for commit means to roll, like handing a heavy load to someone stronger.
• Proverbs 16:9. “A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD directs his steps.” Make the plan, then hold it loosely.
• James 4:15. “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” James wrote it to traders planning a year of business, and it fits a list of resolutions just as well.

Bible verses for an uncertain year

• Deuteronomy 31:8. “The LORD himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged.” Moses said this to Joshua, who was about to lead Israel into a land none of them had lived in.
• Psalm 31:15. “My times are in your hand.” A short prayer for a year you can’t see yet.
• Psalm 121:8. “The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.” The last line of a blessing for travelers on the road.

A blessing for the new year

If you want words to say over your family on New Year’s Day, the priests of Israel already have them. God gave this blessing to Aaron and his sons to say over the people:

“The LORD bless you, and keep you. The LORD make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you. The LORD lift up his face toward you, and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24–26).

Does the Bible talk about a new year?

Not on January 1. Israel’s calendar began in spring, with the month of the first Passover: “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.” (Exodus 12:2). A trumpet feast in the autumn, on the first day of the seventh month, later became the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah (Leviticus 23:24).

January 1 comes from Rome, where new officials took office on that day from 153 BC. Much of medieval Europe started the year on March 25 instead, and England kept that date until 1752.

The Bible has no resolutions, but it is full of fresh starts: Noah looking out on dry ground on the first day of the first month (Genesis 8:13), Israel crossing the Jordan, exiles rebuilding the temple. Many churches mark the turn of the year with a watch night service of prayer. In many Black churches in America, it also remembers December 31, 1862, the night before the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.

A Bible reading for New Year’s Day

This takes about fifteen minutes, with a pen and a notebook.

1. Read Psalm 90 slowly. It was written for this moment: looking at time from God’s side.
2. Write down one thing from last year you want to thank God for, and let it be your Ebenezer stone.
3. Write down one thing you want to leave behind, and read Isaiah 43:18–19 over it.
4. Write down one or two plans, and pray James 4:15 over them.
5. Pick one verse from this list to carry through the year. Put it where you’ll see it in January and again in June.

If one of your plans is to read the whole Bible this year, our plan for reading the Bible in 2027 has dates for every month.

Common questions