Abiding; All 2026

I didn’t make a vision board this year.
No meticulously written resolutions.
No long list of things I wanted God to do for me in 2026.

Instead, I walked into the new year with a heart full of gratitude and a mouth full of thanksgiving for everything the Lord did in 2025.

I spent the final hours of the year doing something simple; counting my blessings and naming them out loud. Not out of obligation, but out of awareness. All I really had to say was, “Thank You, Lord.” I’ve watched prayers be answered in real time. I’ve lived inside the fulfilment of Scripture. I’ve experienced more mercy than I could ever deserve (which I’ve come to realise is actually the whole point). And every single need has been met; the obvious ones, the quiet ones, and the ones I didn’t even know how to pray for.

I truly lack nothing.

So when I look ahead to 2026, my desire isn’t actually louder outcomes or bigger plans. It’s intimacy. The “abide in Me, and I in you” kind.

I met the Holy Spirit in 2020, during lockdown, when the world slowed down and everything external went quiet enough for me to finally hear Him clearly. I joke sometimes and say He’s my best friend, but that’s genuinely how it feels. His presence has become part of my everyday life; sometimes as revelation, sometimes as wisdom, sometimes as a gentle nudge, a warning, an idea, or a quiet instruction. He’s not distant, loud, or dramatic. He’s near, He’s consistent, and very patience with me, lol.

Early in my faith walk, the Lord taught me something that reshaped everything for me: organised religion without intimacy is heavy, exhausting, and it slowly becomes bondage as it turns relationship into routine and devotion into duty. I’ve watched people serve faithfully for years, showing up, doing all the things, keeping all the rhythms, and still never actually know the One they’re serving. They know about God, but they don’t live from relationship with Him. And over time, that kind of faith becomes empty, performative, and draining.

There’s a passage in Matthew 7 that has stayed with me for years. Jesus talks about people who did all these amazing things in His name; prophesying, casting out demons, doing works that looked powerful, and He still says to them, “I never knew you.” Which at first glance is shocking, but as I sat with the word I noticed a detail in that passage that changed everything for me. When Jesus says, “I never knew you,” the word knew isn’t casual as we know it. ‘Knew’ in this context, comes from the Greek word ginōskō and it doesn’t mean knowing about someone. It means knowing by experience. Knowing relationally. Knowing intimately. The kind of knowing that comes from shared life, not shared space. From dwelling in His presence, and not performance. That understanding reframed my faith. Because suddenly it wasn’t about how much I did in God’s name, how well I served, how consistent I looked or being called “faithful” for showing up every week. It was about whether I actually walked with Him. Whether there was intimacy. Whether there was relationship. Whether I was known, not just visible.

In 2025, I became more comfortable distancing myself from religious routines that didn’t actually draw me closer to Jesus, even if that meant looking “disobedient” or “unsubmissive” in the eyes of people. I stopped forcing myself into spaces where proximity to Christ wasn’t the goal or the outcome. I learned that obedience to God will sometimes look like resistance to systems that prioritise appearance over intimacy.

So many people have met religion but haven’t met Jesus. And so many people didn’t walk away from faith because of Christ, they walked away because of religious people.

A life built on rigid rules and external performance was never what the Lord intended for His children. Yes, we’re called to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and set apart, but real transformation doesn’t start on the outside. It begins in the heart, and intimacy is the root. Everything else grows from there. In my own life, I've realised that as my love for Jesus deepens, my desires begin to shift naturally. Obedience stops feeling forced and alignment becomes organic. Naturally, the closer you walk with the Holy Spirit, the more you begin to reflect the One who sent Him.

So as I step into 2026, my prayer is very simple.
That I would abide in Him, and He in me.
That as the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son, I would be one in Them.

No vision board. No 75 hard. No pressure.
Just intimacy, and the quiet trust that everything else will follow.

Happy 2026 🫶🏿

P, xo