WHAT CAN BE NEW IN THE NEW YEAR?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Various passages within the message.

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Okay, the clock struck midnight, the ball has dropped in Times Square, a chorus of “Happy New Year!” chants have been sounded with noise makers blown, confetti tossed, and bubbly drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) toasted.

Now, we awake to the first day of this year and can be left with many questions, one of which possibly being:

“What can be new in this new year?”

It’s possible you may have given thought to this already. Many people do, you know for they see the new year as a chance to get a fresh start and this could include any of the following:

- Managing money better to save or get out of debt.

- Exercise more, eat better, and lose weight so to take better care of their bodies.

- Work to make a difference in some way.

- Maybe go to college or some other school to gain more education.

Yes, many aspirations seem to arise at the start of a new year and unfortunately, just as many of these aspirations 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.

Friends, don’t we all yearn for making commitments and then sticking to them, commitments 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 can gain 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.

The scriptures are telling us to commit ourselves to change and stop committing offenses against God, allowing Him to give us a new heart and spirit. We need to the leave behind all our guilt what we may have done before. For when we as sinners genuinely repent and accept God’s forgiveness, then we are set free to live anew, devoting ourselves to serve Him and others, accomplishing His purposes in the new year.

Do you find yourself in this place right now, needing to get rid of the feelings of self-condemnation that shackle you in remorse and shame?

If so, please say this prayer right now:

Lord Jesus, I am leaving everything in my past behind…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, I pray, so that all I am is all that You are. For I yearn to be new in this new year and surrender my life so You can make it so. For it’s in Your holy and precious Name I pray. Amen.

2. You can realize and experience 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 our Lord, something amazing happens. For as He makes us new in heart and spirit, we begin to see everything in a new way through the lens of His eyes and this includes a deeper appreciation for who He is and what He has done and will do for us.

As we do this, we become fully sensitized to the fact that God could have wiped all mankind off the face of creation because of their sinfulness but instead He decided to give His only Son as a living sacrifice to make sure no one would perish but be saved and receive eternal life instead of Hell.

Why?

Because of His great love for us (John 3:16).

You see, no one had (or has) the power to save themselves. A sinless substitutionary sacrifice was needed and so God surrendered His one and only Son Jesus to die in our place, atoning for our sins and purchasing our pardon by being crucified, nailed to a cross where we all should have been.

So our every waking day, a day we enter into with our new heart and new Spirit, should bring us into an attitude of thanksgiving and praise, a thanksgiving and praise born out of the truth that God’s mercies have come once again, blessing us with the opportunity to live yet another day and experience the awesome gift of life, a life we don’t deserve and yet we are granted, all because of the price paid by Jesus on the cross.

Unfortunately, we may have failed badly in doing this last year, not showing the proper gratitude for what God did for us through Christ Jesus, our Savior. For what could be a greater sacrifice than willfully giving up your son to suffer and die?

Have you ever wondered how God feels about this lack of regard for the rich gift of salvation and what it cost to provide it?

Could He be sad or angry or a combination of both?

Both, for sure, because we have seen Him express these emotions when His people disregarded Him. And although He could send complete and utter wrath upon us, instead He chooses mercy because He loves us as a parent loves a child with the difference being that He as our Heavenly Father is the perfect Parent. We shouldn’t read this to mean He doesn’t discipline us because He surely does that but when He does, it’s always out of love and wanting the best for us. Despite the times when we fail and fall, 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 ushers us into each new day.

Friends, God’s faithfulness is indeed great as is His mercy, grace and love. Let’s use our new hearts and spirits in the new year to fully appreciate Him and what He does each and every day we’re given, embracing His mercies and moving forward in an attitude of service with gratitude, 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

You know, 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 maybe we won’t have to tell as much as people will be asking because when someone truly surrenders themselves to the Lord, they will be different. Everything about them changes and it will be evident to all through the different life attitude on full display.

You see when someone allows the Lord to give them a new heart and spirit, realizing the newness of His mercies that are faithfully given every day. They will begin to live with a bold and positive confidence in Him, emboldened by a faith and trust in the One through which all things are possible.

Often time, this new spirit will be revealed through music as the Lord puts a new song in your mouth, a song that is grounded in praise to Him, a song of praise that will not just bring joy welling up within you but others who hear your song as well. And just in case you don’t think you could ever be 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, words that bless and inspire, words that help that new spirit grow ever stronger in Him.

So in the new year, let us all devote ourselves to sharing the new songs He places on our hearts as we fully appreciate all our Lord has done and will continue to do for those who love Him. Let us sing out loud to let the whole world know about the great God we serve and His Son who saved us.

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, recognizing and revering the great cost that brought our salvation through God’s great mercy, grace, and love which we experience new every morning, and 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 while fully ready to go forth and carry out God’s will 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 is over. In other words, through Christ Jesus, 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. It’s an eternal inheritance that can’t be taken from us after we receive it because it is kept in Heaven for us, the greatest gift ever that we have yet to receive.

Friends, this new year will only end up being business as usual if we just go through our regular motions. And I don’t know about you but I would rather have exciting over boring, exhilarating over dull, fresh over routine, new over old. The good news is that through the Lord, we can see everything in a new way this year and it starts with the first step, giving our lives over to the Lord – body, mind, and soul – while allowing Him to make all things new in our life, no matter how long we may have lived it.

Happy New Year everyone from The Christian Walk Ministry and I pray it will be filled with an abundance of the Lord’s richest blessings.

Amen. 

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.