by Dorette Saunders
Happy New Year!
December 28 is Good Riddance Day, an unofficial pre-New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square in New York City. On this day, New Yorkers, and visitors to the area, can write a list of all the unwholesome and negative issues that plagued their lives that year and get rid of it. For 2023, they were allowed to publicly burn the list. Many of the lists included issues such as cancer, Covid, fake friends, injustice, war, bad hair days, bad habits, and the like.
Perhaps this temporary release of mental stress to make room for positive, new experiences is a good idea. Yet, last year’s troubles, without the necessary personal transformation, will merely become this year’s troubles in new gift wrapping.
But what if these people knew their symbolic gestures can be countered with the reality of God’s truth?
Then the one sitting on the throne said:
I am making everything new. Write down what I have said. My words are true and can be trusted (Revelation 21:5, CEV).
Not only can God’s word be trusted, but God himself can be trusted.
Think about “new.” It’s more than a makeover or a dust-off. It’s different, never seen or experienced before. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A clean slate. A second chance. It’s…new!
So where do we go to find this “new”? We go to God. God desires that we seek him. Our God is ever willing and able to make us new. To transform our lives and our trajectories. To heal the wounds in our bodies, and our minds. To carry our burdens and to free us from the debilitating weight of worry we carry around.
“So we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won't let go….” (Hebrews 12:1, CEV).
For most of us, new is sometimes scary. It’s unknown. We’ve gotten accustomed to the old and we have settled. New makes “what ifs” rise to the forefront of our minds. But God is already there! He knows the end from the beginning. Nothing escapes his tender care.
God offers salvation through his Son, Jesus Christ. Forgiveness of sin and renewal of our minds. God offers love that is unconditional. Incomprehensible. God also offers the opportunity for renewed fellowship with him; God will root out fear and doubt, and plant seeds of peace, if we allow him to.
Despite what it might look like in our lives, God is doing something new, and God encourages us to look out for it:
I am creating something new.
There it is! Do you see it?
I have put roads in deserts,
streams in thirsty lands.
(Isaiah 43:19, CEV)
Right now God has added something to your life. Do you see it? Look for it. It is new.
PRAYER: Give us eyes, Lord, to see and embrace the new in our lives. Your grace and your mercy are new every morning, and for that we give you thanks! In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
©M©dytations 2024