Good Christian New Year's resolutions include praying every morning before checking your phone, reading through a Gospel or the whole Bible, joining a small group, memorising a verse a month, giving regularly, keeping a weekly digital sabbath and praying for one person by name each day. Pick one or two, make them small and specific, and tie them to something you already do daily. A prayer lock app like Prayer Latch helps with the phone one.
2027 begins on Friday, January 1. A new year is a natural moment to ask what you want the next twelve months to look like, but resolutions built on willpower alone rarely survive February. The ones that last are small, specific and rooted in grace, not guilt. If your resolution involves your phone, Prayer Latch, a Christian app blocker that locks your apps each morning until you pray, can carry some of the willpower for you. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, which is in the public domain.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17
Prayer resolutions
- Pray every morning before checking your phone.
- Pray for one person by name each day.
- Keep a prayer journal and look back at answered prayers each month.
- Pray with your spouse or a friend once a week.
- Learn a way to pray, like the ACTS method.
- Pray a psalm on Sundays.
Bible resolutions
- Read through the four Gospels.
- Read through the whole Bible in a year (about four chapters a day).
- Memorise one verse a month.
- Read Proverbs: one chapter a day each month (there are 31).
- Join a Bible study or small group.
Phone and screen resolutions
- No phone for the first 30 minutes of the day.
- Keep phones out of the bedroom.
- Keep a weekly digital sabbath.
- Delete one app that steals your time.
- Turn off all non-human notifications.
- Start the year with a 21-day fast from social media.
Prayer Latch tip: resolutions 1 and 12 fit together. Set your Prayer Latch lock time to when you wake up, choose your social media and news apps, and the first thing you do each morning in 2027 is pray instead of scroll.
Family and relationship resolutions
- Eat dinner together without phones.
- Pray with your kids at bedtime.
- Plan a monthly date night.
- Call a parent or grandparent every week.
- Invite someone new to your home each month.
Church and service resolutions
- Go to church every week, even when you're tired.
- Serve in one ministry.
- Get to know one new person at church each month.
- Volunteer once a month in your community.
Generosity resolutions
- Give a set percentage of your income, and increase it slightly.
- Sponsor a child or support a missionary.
Health resolutions
- Go to bed at the same time each night.
- Walk or exercise three times a week, praying as you go.
How do I keep a New Year's resolution?
- Choose one or two, not ten. A short list you keep beats a long list you abandon.
- Make it specific. "Read the Bible more" becomes "read one chapter before breakfast."
- Attach it to a habit you already have, like coffee, your commute or picking up your phone.
- Tell someone, and ask them to check in.
- Plan for failure. When you miss a day, start again the next morning. "It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22–23, KJV).
Should Christians make New Year's resolutions?
The Bible doesn't command them, and it warns against plans made without God: "ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that" (James 4:15, KJV). But it does encourage reflection and fresh starts. Paul describes "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before" (Philippians 3:13, KJV). A resolution offered to God, held loosely and pursued with his help, is a good thing.
What's the best resolution for growing closer to God?
A daily time with God, usually in the morning. It's the root of most of the others. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33, KJV).
How can I keep "pray before my phone" all year?
Let your phone remind you instead of distracting you. Prayer Latch locks the apps you choose each morning at your wake-up time. When you reach for one, you pray first, then hold to say Amen, and your apps open until the next lock time. Latch, the app's padlock companion, moves along a 90-day journey as you pray, which carries you through to April. The first 7 days of app locking are free.
Pray before you scroll
Prayer Latch locks your chosen apps each morning until you pray. Your first 7 days are free, no card needed.
Updated October 27, 2026 by the Prayer Latch team at Janus Works LLC.