Just stay close…
Passages (NIV): John 15:1-8
Preacher: Mark Kingston
Every January pulls us in two directions. On one side is the loud optimism. This is going to be the best year yet. Fresh starts. Big promises. High expectations.
On the other side is something quieter. You’ve lived long enough to know that changing the calendar doesn’t change much. So you keep going. You show up. You do what needs doing. You don’t ask for too much because you’re not sure you have the energy for disappointment.
Instead of swinging between hype and resignation, what if there’s a different way to step into this new year? As 2026 gets started, what if God is simply calling you to make one commitment: to stay close to Him. Not to fix yourself or try harder or become a better version of you. Just stay close.
Why? Because closeness to God is where life flows from. Jesus uses a simple picture. A vine and its branches. Stay connected to the vine and life flows. Disconnect, and things dry up. Not as punishment. Just because that’s how life works.
When you stay close to God, you begin to live with God’s resources rather than just your own. And that’s when good “fruit” starts to grow in you. Fruit like peace. The kind that fills you up and doesn’t shatter when life gets hard. A peace that steadies you when things are uncertain. Fruit like joy. Not hype or surface happiness, but a growing confidence that God really is good, and that he really is at work. Fruit like patience and kindness so you have a wider capacity for people, more life to give, because you’re not running on empty all the time.
This is what grows when we stay close.
So how do we begin? How about this: start small and simple. It can begin with a prayer as plain as this: “Lord, keep me close.” Then, try to make space each day just to be with God. Read his words. Listen for His Voice. Tell Him what’s on your mind. Pay attention to what He’s doing in and around you and watch for His quiet nudges.
But most of all, don’t rush away. Time in God’s presence is where this starts. Not striving. Not fixing. Not performing. Just staying close.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll look together at some simple practices Christians over centuries have found helpful in keeping them close to God. But for now, as this year begins, let this be enough: Just stay close.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Where am I, really?
As you step into this year, where do you honestly find yourself? Do you feel pulled toward hope and expectation, or more toward simply getting through? What has your life taught you to expect?How does this land?
When you hear the invitation to “stay close to God,” what stirs in you? Does it feel comforting, unfamiliar, challenging, or even tiring? Why do you think that is?What feels thin?
If closeness really is where life flows from, what feels most strained or depleted in you right now? Peace, joy, patience, kindness, or something else?A moment of closeness
Can you remember a time when you felt genuinely close to God? What was happening around you? What was different about your pace or attention then?Where could you begin?
As this year begins, what is one simple way you could make space to stay close, without trying to fix yourself or get it right?
