From Resolutions To Revelation: God’s Plans For 2026 | Episode 9

Thanks for listening to this week's episode, and Happy New Year! 

Today, Pastor Johnny opens the year by moving from resolutions to revelation, praying through Jeremiah 29:11–14 to seek God’s plans for welfare, hope, and a future. He shares how to listen, submit, and take practical steps in Scripture, community, and daily life.

• Jeremiah 29:11–14 as a guide for 2026
• God’s welfare as care, protection, and provision
• replacing resolutions with quiet, prayerful planning
• submitting goals and habits to God’s lordship
• hearing God through Scripture, conviction, and peace
• naming and releasing harmful patterns
• finding a local church and wise mentors
• expecting trials while trusting God’s presence
• committing to a blank-page practice and concrete steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey,

New Year Framing And Scripture

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Johnny Underwood here with the Undivided Podcast. Thank you for tuning in today, and I really hope you're blessed by this episode. Well, good afternoon, Undivided Podcast listeners. I'm so excited to be with you on this first day of 2026. Really excited about this new year. So as we uh jump off in today's podcast, I want to just touch base on or do a follow-up on last week's podcast around Jeremiah 29, 11.

Reading Jeremiah 29:11–14

SPEAKER_00 0:36

So I'm going to read that again, and then we're going to use this as a launching point for our podcast today. So the scripture is, again, out of Jeremiah 29, verse 11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. And then verse 12, then you will call upon me and you will come and pray to me, and I will hear you. Verse 13, you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. And I will restore you, restore your fortunes, and gather you from the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. So last week's episode was one of my favorites, at least. I hope you go listen to it and go, wow, that was excellent, Pastor Johnny. You just crushed it, that really ministered to me. That's my hope. That's my expectation. That's my desire. That being said, I hope it's actually your second favorite after today's. So as we engage in 2026 and we start looking into what this year might hold for us, what God might have for us, uh I want there's a key word here, and or key, a couple of key words here in this scripture that I want to go back to. The word is plans for welfare, not for evil, to give you a future

Plans, Welfare, And Hope

SPEAKER_00 2:01

and a hope. So the idea that God has plans for us. So as we look into 2026, I want to think about and I want you to think about what plans might God have for you this year? Is he saying of you of Jeremiah, I have plans for your welfare, for your care. That's what welfare is. It's for your care, it's for your protection. Right? Not just your physical protection, but your emotional and your spiritual care, your, your, your provision for us there. Right? So to think about that as we go into 2026, what does God have for you? Where are those places of welfare for you? Those places of care. And he says very clearly in verse 11, not for evil. So the opposite of evil, I believe, would be good. So we have a good God who has good welfare for you to give you a future and to give you a hope. Right? What is your future? What is your hope? Right. So I don't know about you, but my wife and I sometimes, or many times over the years, the 26 years of marriage, have made New Year's resolutions. Right?

Rethinking Resolutions With God

SPEAKER_00 3:13

What are resolutions? I think many people kind of set them as goals or promises that they're going to make to someone else or to themselves or things that they want to fulfill or they want to accomplish in that in that upcoming year. So my offer to you today is that instead of just setting and saying, hey, this is what I want to do in 2026, is to set in that space with God, to be able to say, Hey, God, I want to set apart some time. I want to set apart some space. I want to get quiet. I want to shut down all the noise. And I want to hear from you. I desire to hear from you. I want to submit myself to you. Right? I want to do what what we see here in in Jeremiah, where he says, I will restore your few fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places that I've driven you to, declares the Lord. So maybe look at where we've been in 25, 2025, and even previous years, and say, Hey God, if those aren't the places that you have for me, I submit myself to you to make changes, to make adjustments, to change direction or to change course. So there's a something that Jeremiah is, or that God says of Jeremiah, that the people of Israel would do before this would happen. And that's in verse 12.

Pray, Submit, And Listen

SPEAKER_00 4:40

He says, Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. So what I'm inviting you to, as you listen to this on day two of 2026, is to get quiet, to pray, to call upon him. And he says, if you do, he will hear you. That's what he said of Jeremiah in reference to the people of Israel. And I'm offering that. That's what he is saying to you. That he will hear you. You'll pray to him. Right? And it's no small thing to pray to God, right? For us to pray to God is to take a posture of you're supreme, you're superior, and I submit to you, right? I don't pray to things that that that I have authority over, right? Those things submit, if you will, to me. And in the same way in our engagement with God, that to pray to him, to call upon him, right? I'm calling upon him because he has authority, he has power, he has provision, welfare, he has good for me, he has the authority and the ability to do something on my behalf that's good for me, right? Not for my evil, but for my good. So in 2026, in the second day, I just encourage you to find a quiet

Hearing God Through Scripture

SPEAKER_00 6:01

place, a quiet time, and go set in that place with God and say, God, what is it that you have for me? And maybe you bring a notebook, you bring your calendar, you make some commitments as God lays some things on your heart that you submit to him and say, Hey, God, here's a blank sheet of paper. Let's just, let's just write. And I'm gonna offer to you, as someone who I who believes that you can hear from God, I've never heard God's audible voice. But I can say the way that I hear from God is that he gives me thoughts that I know did not come from me. He reminds me of scripture, he gives me ideas, he gives me direction that I go, oh, that that's that sounds like God because that's not how my natural man wants to go. And then, you know, some of that is what I hear from God for me is to get in the word, right? And what is the word? It's God's written word. It's 66 books called the Bible, that at a minimum are an incredible history book of other men and women's adventures with God. And as I read it, as I study it, it it shows me, it points to and paints a picture of God's interest and his involvement in creation and in relationship to humanity. And it gives me context, it gives me direction of how God may want to relate with me. And so it's from that posture, knowing that I've got this access to this living God, the author of the book, right, the Bible, who wants to fellowship

Repentance And Lordship

SPEAKER_00 7:36

with me. And that first for that fellowship starts with, if you've listened to previous episodes, it starts with giving our lives to him, right? Submitting our lives to him and saying, I'm a sinner in need of grace. I'm a sinner in need of a savior, right? And so the first conversation that he wants to hear from us is one of repentance, one of acknowledgement, right, of who he is and who we're not. And on the other side of that conversation is the I'm making you Lord of my life. And so as we submit to him and we make him the Lord of our life, then in that submission to him as Lord, we say, Here in 2026, what do you want to do with my life? What aspects of my life do you want to restore? Are there things that are broken that need to be healed? Are there things that are evil that aren't good for me that need to be gone from me? They need to, I need to separate from, right? If there are uh attitudes or addictions or habits that I need to part with that aren't good for me, or they're not good for my family, they're not good for the, they're not encouraging or um inspiring me, if you will, to to walk uh closer with God or walk closer with my family as a as a man or woman of God, right? Are there behaviors that I need to change? Are there actions I need to take? Do I need to get involved in a local church? Do I need to submit myself to um

Community, Church, And Guidance

SPEAKER_00 9:07

to a body of believers to to engage the living God uh with others that are doing the same? Right? Uh again, my friend Lee uh Preston has said to me on more than one occasion, he would say to me, Johnny, the smartest you got you here, the smartest you is not going to get you out of here. So many times in my life, the the great changes and course corrections in my life have come by submitting myself to others that are walking where I need to walk. They're doing some of the things that I need to be doing, or I'm seeing the fruit in their life that I need to go submit myself to them and saying, Hey, how are you having this fruit in your life? I need to learn to do those things because I would want or need that fruit in my life. So as we look into 2026, as you sit here on the second day, I just encourage you to find some space to get alone, get quiet before God, pour out your heart to him. He doesn't want to just direct your life, but he wants to do life with you. He actually wants to come and live life in you and through you, right? And in so doing, he wants to minister, not just um, hey, this is what I can do in you and through you, but he wants to minister to your hurts, to the places you've been harmed, to maybe the traumas in your life, to the broken, wounded places in us where we've wounded ourselves or others have wounded us. So as we just start out 2026 and say, I want to do something different this year. I look over my life and I don't like where it's been. Or I like where it's been, but I want to add value to my life in 2026, that we submit ourselves to him and say, God, you guide, you direct. I'm gonna use this word that we see in scripture, you lordship or you lord my life, you boss my life, you guide, you lead, and I will follow.

Quiet Space And Concrete Commitments

SPEAKER_00 11:00

And in so doing, I guarantee you, if you do that, you will look over 2026 as we 364 days from now we embrace 2027. You'll look over 2026 and say, God, you have been good to me. You have you have taken things out of my life as I've submitted to you. You've taken things out of my life that weren't good for me, and you've added things into my life that are good for me, that they're good for my family. They're good for me in my place of employment, they're good for me in my friendships. So again, I just I'm gonna say it again and I'm gonna keep saying it until the end of this podcast. Find that space, find that time to separate yourself from all the other noise of your life. Turn the radio off, turn the TV off, quit flicking or scrolling on the internet, and just get alone with your creator and say, God, I submit myself to you. Would you guide me this year? Would you lead me this year? I give you permission. I submit myself to you. I give you permission to come lead my life. So do that and watch what happens this year.

Expectation, Trials, And Comfort

SPEAKER_00 12:10

I guarantee you, I have a guarantee because I know the author of the book, that if you'll submit yourself to him, that he will take your life and it will be the most adventurous 2026 will be the most adventurous year of your life up to this point. And you'll go into 2027 with even more uh expectation, more relationship with him, knowing the voice of your of your Lord Jesus, and he will guide your life, direct your life, and it will be a wonderful experience you have. I cannot promise it'll be pains free, but it will be a wonderful experience because we all in the word says, in this world you will have trouble, you will have pain. Fear not, I have overcome the world. That's what Jesus says. And he also says that he'll never leave us nor forsake us. So the pain that we experience, the trials that we walk through, we won't have to walk through alone. Because if we've made him the Lord of our life, he walks with us, he leads us, he guides us, he directs us, and he will comfort us by his spirit through whatever comes in this year. So I look forward to um engaging you uh as we go on through 2026 and future episodes.

Website Invitation And Testimonies

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Uh, invite you to go to our website, uh, theundivided.org. There is a form there uh that you can uh reach out, touch base with us. I promise you that myself or someone on our staff will uh respond to the emails or the messages on this YouTube or um Facebook, Spotify, Apple, uh wherever you're finding us, as you respond, as you you make a note, we will respond back. And we look forward to reaching out to you. We look forward to engaging you, and we look forward to just hearing the testimonies of how God ministered you and met you here in 2026. So God bless you. Look forward to hearing from you. That's gonna wrap up our episode for today.

Closing Prayer And Blessing

SPEAKER_00 14:09

But before we close, I want to pray over you. So, with that, I just invite you to bow your head and let's engage God together. Heavenly Father, we just come before you. Lord, we just thank you for this new year. We thank you for all that you want to do for us and do in us and with us this year, Father. Our aim is to adventure with you. I believe that that is the purpose of all of our lives is to know you, to walk with you, to fellowship with you, to be led by you, and to make you known to a you know an environment in a world that doesn't know you. So we thank you for that. I look forward to that being the adventure this year. And Father, I just speak your blessing and your favor over these listeners. Father, that they would you would move upon their hearts by your spirit to reach out to to Undivided, to reach out in the, as I mentioned earlier, the various places that they can find us. Father, they would reach out to their local churches and their local community, and they would find Bible-believing churches, and they would they would go in and say, I need Jesus, or I need to rededicate my life to Jesus. I need him to be Lord of my life. I've made a mess of it. But Jesus, if he's willing to take it on, I'm willing to submit my life to him and let him unpack this life. And Lord, I just thank you for doing it. I thank you for your faithfulness to us. I look forward to all that you want to do with Undivided this year, uh, to future podcasts, to uh ministering to and encouraging those that are walking with you to continue in this adventure. So we love you, God. We thank you for the gift of Christ, and we are committed to following you until your return. We pray all this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.