WHAT CAN BE NEW IN THE NEW YEAR?

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In Christ, Mark

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OK…the clock has struck midnight…the ball has dropped in Times Square…the chorus of “Happy New Year” chants have been sounded…the noise makers have been blown…the bubbly (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) has been tasted. And as we awake to the dawn of the first day of this year, we are left with many questions, one of which being…”What can be new in this new year?”

We may have thought about this already. Many people do, you know. They see the new year as a chance to get a fresh start…to manage their money better and get out of debt…to lose weight and take better care of their bodies…to do strive to make a difference in some way. Yes…many resolutions will be made…and many resolutions will go by the way side before the first month of the new year is over. For as much as resolutions are a part of New Year’s holiday tradition, failing to meet those resolutions are just as much a part of the tradition once the year begins.

Don’t we yearn for resolutions that will stick…resolutions that will persevere and carry us day after day after day to a place where we feel better about ourselves, our purpose and the world we live in. What would you say if I told you that God has a plan for us to be new in the new year and remain new throughout? Would you be interested?

If so, here is God’s word for you for the new year…a word that will focus on what can be new for you if you’re just willing to open your heart and mind to His Spirit and wisdom.

1. You will first need a new heart and spirit.

Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Ezekiel 18:31

If you’re truly going to start out the new year fresh and ready for renewal, you first need to leave the past behind. Last year is gone and although you may be dealing with matters that carried over, those are ongoing issues that God will help you with in the new year, possibly in new ways.

What you don’t need to carry over is guilt, worry, anxiety, or stress from what happened before. If you’ve done wrong, genuinely repent and accept God’s forgiveness for you. Confess your wrongs and then turn away from them with a new heart and new Spirit…a new heart and new Spirit that can only come from the Lord...a new heart and a new Spirit that places the Lord and His will first in everything…a new heart and Spirit that is committed to serve the Lord full time, just as He serves us.

Friends, you’ll never get off of this first point unless you move forward with a new heart and new Spirit. Everything else comes as a result of it.

So pray this prayer with me right now:

Lord Jesus, I am leaving everything in my past behind right now…all my hurt, all my pain, all my sins I have committed. I am leaving them behind so I can be free to run into Your arms, for I long for the love, wisdom and safety that only You can bring. I turn all that I am over to you and lay all my present burdens at Your feet, asking you into my heart and praying you will make it new. And as I open my heart wide for You to enter in, I also ask that you fill me with Your Holy Spirit…fill me to overflow Lord so that all I am is what You are. For I yearn to be new in this new year Lord Jesus and surrender my life so You can make it so. For it’s in Your Holy and Precious Name I pray. Amen.

2. You need to fully embrace His new mercies.

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

When we fully surrender our heart to Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, something amazing happens. For not only are we new but we see everything through His eyes, including a deeper appreciation for who He was and what He did for us.

As we do this, we are fully sensitized to the fact God could have wiped all of us off the face of creation because of our sinfulness, but instead He decided to give His only Son as a living sacrifice for us all. Why? Because of His great love for us. In our place, He instead gave up His His perfect, unblemished Lamb…His Son Jesus…who was nailed to the cross where we all should have been…and His shed blood became the sin atonement for us all.

So our waking every day…with our new heart and new Spirit…should bring us into a daily routine of thanksgiving and praise…thanksgiving and praise because God has once again blessed us with another opportunity to experience the awesome wonder of life…life we don’t deserve and yet we are granted...all because of the price paid by Jesus on the cross.

But how have we done in showing God how grateful we are for the great sacrifice He made for us…a sacrifice that cost Him His Son? Frankly, we haven’t done too well because given a choice between righteousness and sinfulness, too often we have chosen the latter…and I often wonder how God feels when we do. Sad? Angry? I would say both. And since He has infinite power, he certainly could choose to vent His wrath on us. But He doesn’t. Why? Because He loves us as a parent loves a child…only He is the perfect Parent…our Heavenly Father. And so, although we frustrate Him, He still loves us…and His compassions never fail. They are truly new every morning as we awake and breathe in His grace…a grace that is amazing…a grace that brings us into each new day.

Indeed, great is God’s faithfulness. Great is His mercy, grace and love. And with a new heart and new Spirit, we’re ready to fully appreciate both each and every day we’re given, embracing His mercies and moving forward in an attitude of service and thanks to Jesus…an attitude reflected in the chorus of this classic hymn:

Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin hath left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow

3. You can sing a new song.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Psalm 40:3

Something exciting happens when we surrender ourselves and get a new heart and Spirit from the Lord…a new heart and Spirit that allows us to fully appreciate the sacrifices that were made for us and the mercies we receive every day.

We want to tell others about it.

And they’ll be asking because if you truly surrender yourself to the Lord, you will be different. Everything about you will change and it will be most evident in your life attitude. For you will see everything in a confident and positive way…emboldened by a faith and trust in the Lord who through which all things are possible. The Lord will put a new song in your mouth and those words when sung out will comprise a hymn of praise to Him…a hymn of praise that will touch everyone around you. And lest you think, “…but I’m definitely not a singer” understand that God’s word here is not only telling us that the Lord places new music in our mouths but new words as well…as in singing the praises of someone.

When someone does something great, don’t you want to tell others about it?

Well, who does greater things for us every day than the Lord?

And if we truly have a new heart and Spirit…if we truly have allowed ourselves to fully appreciate the sacrifice that Jesus made and the mercies that come to us every morning as a result of God’s love…then we will want to do nothing but sing the praises of our Lord to everyone we see…and those songs of praise will come because the Lord has placed them in our mouths.

4. We can be born or reborn into a living hope.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 3:3-5

As we accept a new heart and new Spirit from the Lord…as we then realize and revere the great cost paid by Jesus for us on the cross and how this came as a result of the Father’s mercy, grace and love which we experience new every morning…and as we then go forth to sing the Lord’s praises to all we see, we find ourselves born or reborn into a living hope…a living hope through Christ Jesus that keeps us buoyed up in joy and peace…free from anything that would encumber us and fully ready to go forth and carry out God’s will for us each day.

In this birth or rebirth, we also realize how richly blessed we are. For we discover that through Jesus’ resurrection, we have gained a chance to also join Him in an everlasting life when this earthly life ends. In other words, through Jesus Christ death is not the end but just the awesome, miraculous beginning of a life free from everything that afflicts us in the here and now…an eternal inheritance that no one or nothing can take from us after we receive it because it is kept in heaven for us…a gift, the greatest gift ever, yet to be received.

Friends, the new year will only be business as usual if we choose for it to be that way. I don’t know about you but I would rather have exciting over boring…exhilarating over dull…fresh over routine. The good news is that through the Lord, we can have everything new this year…and it starts with that first step.

Are you ready to receive a new heart and new Spirit today and begin a walk with Christ that will last forever?

He’s patiently waiting to receive you in love and make all things new.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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