As we approach a new year, I’d like to offer a resolution that every Christian man should prayerfully pursue in 2026: Resolve to be a man of God.

This is one of the greatest needs within the church today. We often talk about revival, but whom will God revive? Should it not begin with the men He has called to lead in our homes and churches? A.W. Tozer once wrote, “We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul, who cannot be frightened by threats of death because they have already died to the allurements of this world.”

The apostle Paul exhorts us to “be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16:13) His challenge to “act like men” implies recognizable character traits that describe biblical manhood.

First and foremost, this would involve loving God with all your “heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) This would also include a healthy fear of God, because the man who fears the Lord need not fear anything else.

Such devotion to our Creator would involve refusing to make any decision out of fear. It would mean taking no course of action in order to please others above God. Biblical manhood never performs any act of worship out of mere ritual or routine. Loving the Lord supremely carries no desire for self-promotion or recognition.

But there is another character trait for which all of us should strive to model in the coming year and that is love. Loving God means loving others with the same kind of love by which we are loved by Him. And that love is never a response, but is primary, proactive, unconditional, and sacrificial.

Therefore, if you are married, being a man of God in ’26 means expressing this kind of love first to your spouse. Loving her as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. (see Ephesians 5:25-27) It also means acknowledging your responsibility to be a prophet-priest, servant-king to lead, provide for, and protect your family.

Our culture has a tragically distorted idea of what it means to be a man. Some label biblical manhood as “toxic,” not realizing how far the modern concept has drifted from God’s design. We have a generation of boys who shave, who are old enough to look like men, but unwilling to shoulder the responsibilities of manhood while demanding all its privileges.

So men, in the coming year let us resolve with all our hearts to flesh out Paul’s command to the Corinthian church, to “stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, and to do all that we do in love.”