New Beginnings!

If you are like most people, we think of January as a “new beginning” for all sorts of things in our lives, we make all these New Year Resolutions, like losing weight, eating healthier, going to the gym, getting into the Bible more, making more time to spend with God, loving our family more, being kinder, or putting a budget together and sticking to it!  The list could go on and on and on.  So now, the most important question is asked.  Will we walk out these new resolutions and stick with them?

Well, I have good news for you and for me.  How about if we take a look at what things “new” we already have?  The bible actually has a lot to say about new beginnings.  Let’s look a few and start 2023 with these in our minds and hearts. 

Lamentations 3: 22-23

 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;^[a]
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

• We already have His love and His mercies brand new every day, we are not walking in yesterday.  Our resolutions may come to an end because we’ve achieved them or we did not finish them, but His never ends, why, because “Great is His Faithfulness to us!

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

• Did you know that a “new creation” has no past, no history.  He tells us whatever was old, or there before, is gone and only the new has come.  See yourself this year the way God sees you, as brand new something that never existed before.  No more past failures, mistakes, or thinking “I can’t”.  Yes, you can! 

Ezekiel 11:19-20

¹⁹ And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, ²⁰ that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

• God has been seeing you with a “new spirit” in you for eternity, why, So we will be able to walk in all that He has called us to.  You are now and forever His people, and He is now and forever your God! 

Romans 6:4

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

• We have been provided “newness of life” just like Jesus.  Did you get that?  Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also have been raised up by the same glory of the Father to walk in this newness of life we were given at the new creation of our spirits! 

All the things that I listed in the first paragraph of this newsletter are things not seen yet.  What does the Bible say about that?

 2 Corinthians 4:18

while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

This year let’s look at everything we do in the light of “the eternal”!  Let’s realize that what God has done in us is so radical, that He will have to reveal your “new self” to you. Then watch how many things you will walk out and achieve in 2023! 

Happy New Year to our New Life!

Remember, you are loved, you are righteous, and you are His!