A New Year, A New Beginning

​Genesis 1:1
Revelation 1:8
2 Corinthians 5:7
Romans 10:9
 
As a new year comes in we can recognize the end and the beginning – the end of last year and the beginning of this year.  The old year is gone, it won’t be back.  We can’t bring it back, so the things that we didn’t accomplish last year, they are gone.  By God’s grace, we face a new beginning.
 
A lot of times people start the new year setting all kinds of goals – new year’s resolutions. They want to make a change or reach a goal – it’s like you’re pushing a restart button to start all over again.  Maybe last year we didn’t accomplish it, but this year we’ll push the restart button – I’ll quit smoking, or lose weight, or pay off my bills, spend more time with family, or spend more time with God.  With this new year I have another chance to meet that goal.
 
As we enter this new year we enter with faith – we don’t know what lies ahead, but we are walking by faith as the clock turns to the new year.  It is not a coincidence that we are here right now, with this opportunity before us to press the restart button.  God knew you would be right there, right now at this appointed time.  Before you and I were born God knew that I would be before you.  He told Jeremiah, I knew you, and God knew us before we existed the way we are now.  Some people had the opportunity to push the restart button last year, but aren’t here for this new year, they have passed and gone.  Some people living today will not be here to push that restart button when next year rolls around.  We don’t know what lies ahead for us, we don’t see the future, but we walk by faith, the only way we can please God.
 
At the end of the year, we often reflect on those who have gone on – a well known singer died recently, a famous politician, the media even reported the death of an enemy of our nation – we mark their passing with the passing of the year.  Some people got off for Christmas and didn’t go back or could not go back to work after Christmas.  Job shut downs, outsourcing, not only that some physically couldn’t go back due to illness. We thank God that He is allowing us to press that restart button.  Let us walk into this new year, walking by faith.
 
A profession of faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior; this is the ultimate restart.  “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth….” When a person does that, now that is a new start – a fresh start.  The bible tells us that if any man be in Christ he is a new creature. When a person confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord – that God has raised him from the dead, the clock ticks over to a new life.  At that moment we have the opportunity to get it right.  We can get it right with Him, get it right with family, and even get it right with co-workers.
 
In this New Year, we can have a new beginning.
~J.T.