The New Year is often a time of self-examination and rightly so. It is a time to ask: What did I like about the year that just passed? What did I learn that will help me in the year ahead? What did I feel were my biggest successes? Where could I have done better? What about the last year do I need to put behind me? What would I like to see repeated in the new year?

Might I suggest that there are two questions we ought to ask ourselves that could dramatically impact how we live in the year ahead. They are rooted in two verses of Scripture that we ought not simply memorize but meditate upon. In Lamentations 3:22,23 we read, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”

Here are the two questions that could greatly impact how you live in 2026. Additionally,  they are two questions that (if you have trusted Jesus Christ as your one and only way to heaven) could impact the reward you receive from Him when you see Him face to face. Hence, these are two questions that cannot be asked too soon but could be asked too late. These questions are intimately related to each other.

1. Does my compassion for others mirror His compassion towards me?

Jeremiah understood something profound. He knew that although the nation of Judah had to be punished for its sin, God did not reject His people. He loved them even when they were unlovely and He kept His promises to them. Note that Jeremiah uses the word “compassions” not “compassion.” The ways in which He demonstrated His love for them were too numerous to count. He offered a fresh supply of His loyal love every day.

We ought to ask of ourselves, “Am I marked by that same compassion?” It is understandable that we would be annoyed when others hurt us or in any way do us wrong. But people from whom we suffer ill treatment need our compassion more than our criticism. What better way to say, “Happy New Year” than to shower them with compassion and forgiveness?

In fact, compassion and forgiveness given towards those who do not know the Savior could be the very things God uses to reflect the Savior’s love to them. In the loudest way you are shouting, “I forgive you just as my Savior forgave me.” His pity towards me is reflected in my pity towards them.

2. Does my faithfulness in following Him mirror His faithfulness towards me?

Jeremiah was overwhelmed with the unlimited supply of God’s grace that had been extended to Him. God was not merely faithful in all that He did. He was faithful again, and again, and again, and again, and then again! That caused Jeremiah to leave people and circumstances in God’s hands rather than take them into his own hands. Even though God’s people were often unfaithful to Him, He was faithful to them. Jeremiah exclaims, “Great is Your faithfulness.”

That causes me to ask myself, just as He is faithful towards me, am I faithful in following Him? He is consistent in all He does for me. Am I marked by consistency in my walk with Him? God says what He means and means what He says. Do I do the same? Faithfulness marks everything God does in His relationship with me. Could that word mark everything I do in my relationship with Him? Will He one day be able to look at me and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? (Matt. 25:21,23)

Does obedience in what He tells me to do and the avoidance of what He tells me not to do mark my life? Am I what James would call merely a “hearer” of the Word or am I a “doer” of the Word? (James 1:25) He is never changing as He walks with me. Do I change in my walk with Him?

Conclusion

Now think with me for a moment as we have entered 2026. What difference would it make in your life if each and every day you asked yourself those two questions based on Lamentations 3:22-23?

1. Does my compassion for others mirror His compassion towards me?

2. Does my faithfulness in following Him mirror His faithfulness towards me?

Then say this simple prayer – “Lord, help this year to be one in which I start by saying “This is what I want to do” and can end by saying, “This is what I did.”