2026: What’s Your Word?

A year of threes.

Threes doubled (3+3) equals six. 5786. 2026.

Six words.

Fire – Kindling
Pivot – Course Correction
Discovery – Journey

In 2018 I embarked on a word adventure. I had been immersed in the social media world for many years. I saw how much it was a reflection of culture. Little did I realize how precise that was – especially when you consider today’s world.

My adventure had to do with being the encourager that I am mixed with a non-resolution resolution.

Say what, Sunny?

Let me explain from my 2018 post:

I began thinking about the impending New Year’s and the inevitable resolutions that people make. What is it they say? A high percentage of resolutions are broken within the first few weeks of January.

People have good intentions making resolutions – getting healthy, exercise, quit smoking, read more, cut back on social media. Noble ventures, to be sure. But, so many end up in “failure”.

The reasons vary. Unrealistic expectations. Lack of support.

Failure.

So, I set out to do something about it. Something that would help people think beyond resolutions and grasp on to something more realistic.

One word.

2025 was an interesting year.

As the year played out, my enthusiasm for “my word” waned. I began to question whether I even heard the Lord correctly about it. A part of me feels like I missed it with “The Standard is the Glory.” This was supposed to be my word.

Yet, part of me believes it was also a word for the Church body. Still, that’s a story for another day.

When I get a word for the year, I back it up with Scripture. It doesn’t matter if it is the Jewish New Year or the Gregorian calendar year. I don’t just grab any old Bible verse. It has to align with the word and the direction that I believe God wants to take me.

Last year’s Scripture for “The Standard is the Glory”, came from Psalm 84:11-12,

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
The Lord will give grace and glory;
No good thing will He withhold
From those who walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts,
Blessed is the man who trusts in You!

The Lord will give grace and GLORY!! The standard equals walking uprightly. I had found Scripture to back it up, so I was set.

However………

The Bible says, in Proverbs 29:18 (ESV)

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,
but blessed is he who keeps the law.

A word for the year isn’t just so you can have it. It is so you can lean on God and His word throughout the year. Be open to the possibilities that God has through it. Find strength in it when times are hard.

That means you have to embrace it.

I didn’t embrace the standard is the glory because I had no vision for it. It was such a drastically different type of “word” than what the Lord had given me before. I thought I got it. I thought I understood it.

But I didn’t.

And because I didn’t fully embrace it, I stumbled my way through the year lacking focus, direction, and meaning. I experienced some moments where I perceived God doing or saying the standard is the glory.

Yet, these moments were rare in a rather unorthodox year.

When the Jewish New Year, 5786, rolled around in September. I began asking the Lord for a word in late Spring. He has given me words for ahead of Rosh Hashanah the last couple of years even though I’m not Jewish. Jesus was Jewish, so of course I want to know about Jewish life, Hebrew, etc.

I love looking at the numbers in the year – in Hebrew. About the number 6, I wrote:

The VAV (WAW in Ancient Hebrew), 6^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet (alephbet), is the image of a hook. It’s like a joining of two things, like with the word “and”. It’s a connector!!! Roman crucifixions, I believe, would bend the nails. The nails that Jesus bore were the connection between the spiritual and the natural (the blood poured out via the nails).

Connector.

Connection.

The word for the Jewish year 5786 is “connection”.

It’s all about checking your connections.

Look around you. Technology is changing at such a fast pace. People are trying to keep up, but they can’t. AI to the rescue, right? Dangerous!

We are in such a time on this earth where we each need to do some self-evaluation. What are you hooked to? Who are you connected to? Am I surrounded by connections that speak life words? Do I spend more time on social media than I do with God? Than with my family? Than with my friends?

What or who are you devoted to? Are you influenced more by the Word of God or the algorithm?

Check your connections.

Just over two years ago, I wrote a book titled, “What’s Your Word? – Finding your word through the Word of God (Amazon).

The goal was to show people that the Word of God is relevant all year long. It is not just for January 1. God knows what we need before we have need of it (Matthew 6:8). Sticking to just one word for the year is great. So is when God gives you a word each month, week, or day.

Overall, the point is to look to the Bible.

Over the past few years, God has given me one word. Imagine my surprise when it sounded like He gave me six words.

Six words.

Fire – Kindling
Pivot – Course Correction
Discovery – Journey

The first word came in the spring. The last word of the six came in December. As I looked into the Hebrew numbers/alphabet, well, we are in 5786/2026. When you look at the list above, they all paired up pretty well.

So maybe they were all my words for this year.

And as He is wont to do, He took me beyond the six words to…..a seventh word.

New

In August 2025, I heard the Lord say, “I am taking you down a new path.” In early January 2026, I heard Him say, “New rooms. Translation room.”

Examining the word, “new,” the six words above reveal a level of new to each one. Fire starts with kindling, and when the fire goes out, new will arise out of the ashes. When you pivot or make a course correction, you are going down a new path. And when you make a discovery, you are on a new journey of something you have never known before.

Now it comes down to the Word. I need the Word to back up the “word”. There are so many Bible verses with the words, “new”, but this one…well…

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

_{Revelation 21:5 (NKJV)}

Write.

One of the many things that God has given to me is writing. I love putting thought to paper or, in this case, a computer screen. Sometimes they never see the light of day beyond my own eyes.

It’s better that way, or that’s what I like to think.

What if what I say is wrong? What if someone judges me harshly? What if, what if, what if?

The what ifs have kept me in bondage, kept me in fear more times than I care to admit. Afraid to write lest I be judged. The apostle Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV) –

Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Fear is not from God. Fear is the enemy’s way of keeping you questioning, wondering whether God was, is, or will be. Wondering is asking questions. It is not faith. Faith is trusting without knowing all of the answers to the questions.

Just as Paul said to Timothy, so God is saying to me, and to His Church, stir up the gift of God which is in you. I have given you a Spirit full of power, love, and a sound mind. Operate from that place of trust and see what new I will do in you.

Today, I did something new.

I wrote – I commented – on a controversial topic on a public figure’s Facebook page. That may not seem like much to you, but for me, it was a big step. Avoidance has been my modus operandi when it comes to that type of thing.

But I sensed Holy Spirit was prompting me to write. And so I did.

I did not accuse, demean, or argue with the author of the post or anyone else who commented on it. I wrote what God instructed me to write for the sole purpose of pointing people back to Him.

When I’ve felt the promptings before, I’ve always backed away and refused to do it. Then I would spend the rest of the day beating myself up for disobeying Him. The mental gymnastics of it all was exhausting.

Today, I felt free.

I don’t know what the author or other people think of what I posted. Frankly, it should not matter. I obeyed. I wrote. It is now in the hands of the Lord.

My word for 2026 is new.

It is also fire-kindling, pivot-course correction, discovery-journey. All of those and more.

I will write when and what He tells me to write. He is taking me on a new path and into a new room. I will be the kindling and the fire. I will be the pivot and the course correction. I will be the discovery and the journey.

I will be the new. I will stir up the gift. I will embrace what God has said to me, for greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

What’s your word?

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