Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17
We often consider January 1st as a time of new beginnings. A new year, a fresh start, with resolutions to live a different life, a better life. But January 1st is just a date on the Gregorian calendar- an invented time measurement. Nothing really changes on January 1st (except trying to remember new numbers when writing the year), and some of us even make resolutions that begin on January 2nd- wanting one more day of our old life. Typically, resolutions have been found to not be lasting. Every once in a while it will stick, but not usually.
That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t look forward to and strive for positive change, but it does mean that we should instead examine it from the perspective of our faith. Lasting change, real transformation, is available to us every day through Christ. If we were to call it a resolution, it would be to resolve to live into the promise God has given us. The Christian life is a world of new beginnings, fresh starts. God wants us to live a life filled with the fruit of God’s Spirit- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God wants all of us to live by the Spirit and experience God’s abundant blessings in every area of our life.
Typical New Year’s Resolutions are usually decided by us, propelled forward only by our own will and stamina, and then we wonder why a resolution did not result in lasting change. As people of faith, we need to invite God into our decisions, into every area of our life. We ask God about what God would want us to change, submit to God’s will, and then rely on the Holy Spirit to empower us to live into God’s new and fresh start. Transformation, sanctification- the “new” is here and available to all of us at all times through Jesus Christ, our Lord. May you have a blessed New Year!
Peace, Pastor Sherry
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