Happy New Year! As we step into this new year together, it’s common to approach January with goals and resolutions. As you know, I’ve long encouraged people to “write the vision,” just as Habakkuk 2 instructs us. As you begin setting your course for this year of writing the vision and establishing your goals, I want to share something with you that will help bring direction, clarity, and confidence to everything you put on paper and every step you take moving forward.

Over the years, as a pastor, I’ve learned something important: people don’t struggle with God as much as they struggle with seeing Him clearly. The truth itself doesn’t change, but how we understand it—and how we see our lives through it—can make all the difference. That’s why I’ve spent decades learning how to communicate the same truth in a thousand different ways. Words paint pictures, and the right picture can bring light where there has been confusion.

I often say that part of my calling has been like that of an optometrist, by helping people get the right lenses on so they can see what God has already provided. Many sincere believers are walking with the Lord, but they’re viewing life through lenses that distort what they see. And when your vision is off, it affects everything, including your balance, your confidence, and even the direction you walk.

Recently, my mother experienced this firsthand. She had begun seeing double, and it was affecting her ability to walk steadily. She went to a specialist who examined her glasses, made a minor adjustment, and put them back on her face. Instantly, the double vision disappeared. Nothing in the room had changed; only the lenses she was looking through.

That’s a picture of what happens spiritually when the right truth comes into focus. When the lenses are corrected, clarity returns. Confidence returns. Direction returns. And one of the most important lenses any believer can ever put on is an understanding of covenant.

That understanding takes us to a passage of Scripture that becomes especially important at the beginning of a new year. In First Corinthians 11, the apostle Paul recounts the words of Jesus on the night He was betrayed, “This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”

That word testament is the word covenant. Jesus wasn’t establishing a ritual. He was calling us to remember something powerful and enduring. Covenant is the strongest relationship God can establish with humanity, and it is always based on blood. Communion is not just tradition; it is remembrance.

Here is a truth worth anchoring your faith to as this year begins: 100% of God’s dealings with you are based on covenant. God does not deal with you randomly or emotionally. He deals with you according to what Jesus secured and what His covenant promises declare.

When you see covenant clearly, you begin to notice how consistently God operates by it throughout Scripture. God initiated covenant with Abraham, not because Abraham earned it, but because Abraham believed Him. That covenant touched every area of Abraham’s life—it guided him, protected him, increased him, and preserved him. Even when Abraham made mistakes, covenant carried him forward.

That same covenant continued through Isaac and Jacob and eventually through an entire nation. When the children of Israel were oppressed in Egypt and cried out under the weight of bondage, Exodus 2:24 tells us, “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”

God moved because He remembered covenant. And when He brought them out, He marked their deliverance with blood. The Passover lamb established a pattern that would ultimately point to Jesus, the Lamb who would secure a better covenant once and for all.

That’s why covenant remembrance is not backward-looking; it helps to keep you focused on what lies ahead. It reminds us that the same God who kept His Word then is faithful to keep His Word now.

Covenant also explains your identification with Christ. The apostle Paul writes in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” God counted what happened to Jesus as having happened to you. His death became your death. His resurrection became your resurrection. And now, the life you live is not sustained by striving, but by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you.

Paul goes on to say that if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. That means the blessing spoken over Abraham flows to you. Like Abraham, you don’t have to earn it; you learn to receive it.

And just as that covenant touched every aspect of Abraham’s life, it touches every part of yours as well. It influences your walk with God, your family, your work, your provision, your health, and your future. There is no area of your life that God intends to leave untouched or unsupported by what Jesus secured.

As this year begins, I want to encourage you to let that truth shape your vision. Let covenant identity guide your expectations and decisions. When questions arise, let covenant settle them. When uncertainty tries to intrude, let identification with Christ steady your heart.

I want you to know how thankful I am for you. Your prayers, your faith, and your generosity help carry covenant truth to people who need clarity, stability, and hope. What you do matters more than you may ever fully see.

Phyllis and I love you. We bless you. And we stand with you as you step into this new year—strong, healthy, prosperous, and anchored in covenant.