Everyone welcomes a new year because it signals a fresh start. Hence many people make new year’s resolutions to start that exercise program they’ve been putting off, or they proclaim their intentions to lose weight in the coming year. There’s just something about the changing of the calendar that says, “I may have failed in the past, but this is a new opportunity.” Quite frankly that is correct, but the new opportunities must not be taken lightly or in the same way, otherwise the same old results with the same regrets will be present at the next change of the calendar.
Let’s notice some principles from the Bible. God promises to do something completely different in the prophecy of Isaiah. So different it would be completely opposite of what the people in Isaiah’s day could imagine. So different even from what we can imagine.
Isaiah 43:19 (ESV) — 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
The apostle Paul adds light to this prophecy in reminding us that God is actually doing more that can ever be imagined in our lives.
Ephesians 3:14–21 (ESV) — 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
God actually brings about this new thing in newness of life as He brings us the benefits of the new covenant calling us a new creation.
Jeremiah 31:31–34 (ESV) — 31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV) — 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) — 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Galatians 6:15 (ESV) — 15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
Colossians 3:10 (ESV) — 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
The fresh start that God brings to us in salvation is far better than any change of the calendar! This is going from being dead in our sins to alive in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:1–9 (ESV) — 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Therefore, Paul reminds his readers to apply themselves to this new opportunity:
Romans 12:1–2 (ESV) — 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Therein lies the instruction for facing a fresh start. Don’t let the opportunity of the change in calendar slip out of your hands by not applying yourself to change. You can set a goal, which makes it more than a wish or a mere resolution if you include a plan of action broken down to bite size pieces to build momentum. You only move forward as you apply daily discipline of application by turning away from the easy way to the way of change by renewing your commitment to the goal.
It’s not brain surgery – it’s the daily discipline of application and building momentum. Just as a Christian is to daily apply themselves to presenting themselves to God as a living sacrifice, dying to self and to the world around by focusing on renewing their mind and testing everything by the word of God, so we find the way to find the momentum to take us through the coming year as we pursue our goals.
Daily discipline is more than a good thought. It’s the only way for a goal to become a reality. The good news is to be reminded that change for the good is possible as you build momentum and stick to the plan. By God’s grace your daily application to the plan of making change will bear fruition and next year at this time you can look back with a sense of accomplishment instead of regret.
Godspeed,
Bob Brubaker
