2014: A New Beginning

Today marks the beginning of a new year, a year of vast potential, purpose, and promise.  In His wisdom God designed the earth to orbit the sun and orchestrated the division of seasons, months, weeks, and days.  If all we counted were days without hours, time would hold little promise for the future.  There would be no possibility for a year to hold the potential of being "the year where everything changed for good."  A new year opens countless possibilities, and reminds those whose eyes have been opened to the new life we have granted us through faith in Christ.  Every day is a new day to seek God and worship Him, as we grow in His love and wisdom.  Our God is not one of second chances but new beginnings!  Every new day and every new year is one to take hold of as a gift from God and relish the opportunities and even challenges He places before us.

It is now 2014, two-thousand and fourteen years since the birth of Jesus Christ, the One who makes all things new.  Revelation 21:5-6 says, "Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." ⁶ And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts."  The way God makes new is not like a "refurbished" electronic device, but is a continual process as we follow after Him in faith.  We are continually being renewed as we put off the old man - our old ways of thinking, doing, and coping - and choose to be renewed in the Spirit of our mind through the Word of God, and put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  We are not doomed to repeat past failures, nor are we required to bear the burden or guilt of them.  The future spreads before us bright and beautiful as we consider the new life God has offered us through the Gospel.

Sometimes we can feel like change in ourselves or our circumstances is impossible.  We have tried hard before and failed:  why should this time be any different?  Ask that question to barren Hannah, Namaan the leper, or the disciples of Jesus who toiled all night without catching a single fish.  Let us never forget that what is impossible with men is possible with God.  Which is harder:  to change external circumstances or to change the heart and mind of a stubborn, willful human being?  I speak of all men and do not exclude myself.  2 Corinthians 5:17-21 says this:  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. ²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."  Here we see our position and calling before God as believers, unbelievable as it might be.  Consider this, believer!  If you are in Christ, old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  We have been reconciled to God and have been ordained to reconcile others to Him as well, for He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  It is His work, yet we are called to be ambassadors for Christ as long as He tarries.  This is both a sober task and a joyful duty.

The Israelites were not able to enter the Promised Land because of unbelief, and many Christians encamp in desolate places where the water is stagnant and the food stale for the same reason.  Day after day they trudge on, and God's promises and dynamic power are forgotten.  They do not feel new, thus they do not believe God can make all things new.  Because they have limited God by their shortsightedness, focusing on their past struggles or perceived odds stacked against them, God cannot do for them what they have tried again and again to do themselves.  You may scoff to yourself:  "A man limiting God?  Rubbish!"  Consider Psalm 78:40-42:  "How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! ⁴¹ Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. ⁴² They did not remember His power: the day when He redeemed them from the enemy."  Unbelief provokes and grieves God.  Jesus had the power to heal, yet He could not heal many in His home town because of unbelief.  Unbelief stayed His hand and blunted His miraculous power.  Unbelief causes us to forget God's power He has revealed to us, having redeemed us from sin and death.  If God has saved us from hell and transformed our hearts through spiritual regeneration by the indwelling Spirit, is anything too hard for Him?

For some people this new year will be simply another day ticking over to the next.  For others, however, it is a new year where God will have freedom through faith in His people to make all things new.  I find this most encouraging and exciting for my own walk, as well as far-reaching implications for lost people of this world who desperately need a Saviour!  May 2014 mark the beginning of a new walk with Christ that is richer, fuller, and blessed beyond reason as we faithfully follow Jesus Christ and shine bright for Him!