Taking a Deep Breath and Making a Fresh Start

We’re still in the nascent moments of the new year, so it feels like all things are possible. Those things we planned to do last year? Maybe we can accomplish them this year. That troublesome habit we wrestled with last year? We can overcome it this year. That rut we seemed to be stuck in last year? This can be the year we finally extricate ourselves from it and start making some important changes in our lives.

 

In actuality, the transition from 2021 to 2022 was a simple turn of the page on our calendars, but it does seem new, doesn’t it? Kind like starting a new job or moving to a new town. Everything seems fresh and exciting, bubbling over with potential.

 

Experience has taught us, however, the “new car smell” of the new year wears off quickly, so if we plan to make changes, or move forward with the pursuit of long-cherished hopes and dreams, now would be a great time to get started. We don’t need to get it accomplished all at once, but as someone has said, a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.

Among many important and meaningful things about a growing spiritual life is the assurance that we don’t need to spend a lot of time clearing away old messes. God isn’t telling us, “Clean up your act first, and then maybe I can do something with you.” In fact, it’s just the opposite. When we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and submit to His authority, He promises to give us a fresh start: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

This passage, as simple as it sounds, can be hard to accept. Even if we have received the gift of eternal life, forgiveness, and redemption through Christ, it often seems like we’re still the same old folks we were before we met Him. After discovering this verse, I remember thinking to myself, ‘How can I be a new creation when I seem like the same old knucklehead I’ve always been?’ This is where it’s important to act according to faith and not feelings. Over time I learned it’s necessary to live on the basis of God’s promises, not our own shortcomings.

 

Another verse I’ve cited before affirms this truth: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Even though there are times when it doesn’t seem like the Spirit of Jesus Christ is living in me, I need to trust that this is true and act accordingly – allowing Him to express His life in me and through me.

 

The Bible affirms that our Creator God is all about making things new, even today. Both the Old and New testaments make this abundantly clear. In one of the prophetic books, He declared, “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you” (Isaiah 42:9).

 

In the next chapter the Lord declares, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs us; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19), and later in the same book He announces, “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17). God specializes in restoration and regeneration.

 

One of the psalms opens with, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him…. He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel, all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Psalm 98:1-3).

 

And in one of the closing chapters of the Scriptures we read, “He who was seated on the throne [God] said, ‘I am making everything new! Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’” (Revelation 21:5).

 

When the Bible opens, we see God doing a new thing – creating the heavens and the earth, and everything in them. At the end of His Word we see He is still busy doing the same thing, making all things new. He’s never stopped doing that.

So, as we ponder the possibilities and potential for this new year, hoping to make a fresh start, perhaps with some dramatic changes, we can trust we don’t have to do it alone. The One who makes all things new has promised to work in us and through us to empower us to do the same.