Holding a precious new little life. The feel of new socks. The smell of a new car. Curling up with a new book. There are many new things that bring us joy. Maybe your list is different than mine, but one thing we have in common is that, by the grace of God, we have all been given a new year. I don't know about you, but that is so refreshing to me. The last couple days, God has been prompting/convicting/encouraging me, all at the same time, about this coming year. I've never been a big New Year's resolutions person. I remember making lists in high school, but usually, it was a carbon copy of the year before, so over time that ritual fell by the wayside. This year isn't so much about resolving to do things to better myself, but more about reflecting on all that God has done for me. That in itself is a huge impetus for doing what really matters anyway.
New life. We smile at a baby involuntarily. We make faces and coo like clowns, and yet no one laughs at us because everyone loves babies. Well, I suppose there are some people who don't, but the average person is drawn to that little bundle of humanity in ways that we can't really explain. This last year we welcomed a new grandson into the family and even the guys enjoy making him smile and interacting with him. At Thanksgiving, our son and daughter-in-law announced that they were expecting their first baby, and we all cheered and smiled, and had you not heard the conversation, you would have thought we'd won the lottery or something. Our other daughter and son-in-law just returned from a trip to Florida and were telling us how on the different flights and places they visited, total strangers enjoyed interacting with their 10-month-old daughter.
Babies bring joy just by their presence. They are a symbol of innocence in a world that is often clouded by the taint of sin. Have you noticed too, that even baby animals are cuter than the adults. I looked up baby squid, baby skunks, baby porcupines, baby platypus, and even baby warthogs. Believe it or not, they are pretty cute. Just like new human life brings joy, new spiritual life brings lasting joy and peace. When Nicodemus visited Jesus, Jesus told him that in order to see the kingdom of God (heaven) a man must be "born again." A new life based on Christ's free gift. To think that God, through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, has offered to cleanse our lives and make them new!
New Life in Christ! Abundant and free!
What glories shine, what joys are mine,
What wondrous blessings I see!
My past with its sin,
The searching and strife,
Forever gone, there's a bright new dawn!
For in Christ I have found New Life!
--John W. Peterson
Scripture says He removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. You can't get any farther away than that. If you have never accepted Christ's payment for your sin, God has given you this new year as an opportunity to accept His forgiveness and receive the new life He freely offers. We can leave our past sin behind as we experience His forgiveness and take on His righteousness.
Ah, new socks. Who doesn't love them? I always enjoy watching my boys when I order them new socks and they put them on for the first time. Sheer bliss.😀 And, I must confess, I got a pack of new socks over a year ago and still haven't worn this pair yet. There's something about opening my drawer and seeing these crisp white socks that is comforting (ok, maybe I'm weird that way). But the truth is, as soon as you wear that new pair of socks, they will inevitably become soiled. They will never look new again no matter how much you scrub them. Life can be like that too. While I can avoid wearing this last pair of socks to keep them spotless, we can't avoid living. And despite our best efforts, that means we will end up with stains. Even though we've received a new life in Christ, there will be failures and regrets that we can't scrub away despite our best efforts. With New Year's being on a Sunday this year, we were greeted by a friend at church yesterday, and he asked how things were going. I replied, "So far, so good." He responded, "True, there hasn't been much time for things to go wrong yet." You know, whatever failures hounded you to the close of last year, God's love stands ready to forgive and send you forward into 2023 with a clean slate.
Living in the northern part of Minnesota, there is snow on the ground pretty much from November through April, give or take a month on either end. ⛄ In fact, as I'm sitting here writing, this is my view from the window next to my chair! :)
But the last few days, we have had some heavy fog which has produced rime ice on just about everything. It is beautiful and has coated our world in an added layer of pristine whiteness.
I can't help being reminded of Isaiah 1:18.
Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow;
though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool.
Like the frozen fog on the world outside covers the stark barrenness of winter with a garment of beauty, God's forgiveness covers the failures of our past with the garment of hope and renewal. We only need to accept His forgiveness and leave our past failures behind in 2022. We can step through the door of 2023 in victory instead of defeat, in joy instead of guilt, and in hope instead of despair. I know God has convicted me of areas that I had let slip, and the peace that comes with confession and renewing our relationship with Him is 100% better than a new pair of socks!
So, as I thought about the smell of a new car, I have to be honest and admit that these air fresheners are as close as I've ever come to owning a car that smelled new.😁 I do hear people talk about getting into their new car and enjoying the smell of it. Smells can bring back so many memories. Just this Christmas, our son-in-law ordered some of our favorite lunch meat we used to enjoy out east for our daughter. She brought a pack over and the first thing we all did was smell it. Instantly, memories of school lunch boxes and trips to the meat counter at our favorite grocery store came to mind. Memories like that are fun, but sometimes memories can hold us back. As we step through the door of this new year, we need to let go of anything that might be hindering us from being all that God wants us to be.
Philippians 3:13-14
Life is full of things that can weight us down. Maybe it is a memory that we just can't let go. Maybe it's a circumstance we are facing that has caused us to lose our focus. Just reading the news anymore is enough to distract us from our trust in God. It doesn't matter if our car smells new or old; we use it to get us from one place to another. It moves us forward from point A to point B. We should be able to look back over the last year and see progress in our personal and spiritual life. If not, now, at the beginning of a new year, is a great time to hang up that new car scent and get moving. I have been convicted twice this last week in this area. I ordered a book for my Christmas stocking by Les Ollila called A New Normal. It's a short book, but I highly recommend it. You can find it on Amazon. He talks about how we deal with life altering events in our lives and, in a nutshell, states that we should go through four steps as we deal with these circumstances. We need to first acknowledge the event and not try to deny it. For me that was pretty obvious as I watched my health deteriorate several years ago. Second, we need to accept the changes that result. That was a little more challenging, but by God's grace, I can finally say that I have learned to be content with my handicaps, although there are days now and then that I still really miss the old me. Third, Les shares that we need to adapt to our new normal. That has been a big challenge for me and our family, but we are getting pretty good at it. They take great care of me, and I am learning to let go of things that I just cannot do any more. Finally, his fourth point is where I skidded to a stop. He shared that after acknowledging, accepting, and adapting, we need to accelerate. We need to find ways that God can use our experience through our trial to help others and advance His kingdom.
The second conviction came through a movie I was watching where one of the characters had prayed for a situation to be removed from his life, but it had not been. Another character then tells him that God could have answered his prayer, but that he should just think of the impact his life could have if others saw him faithful despite his circumstances. Talk about a punch in the gut. Sometimes we spend so much time trying to get out of things that God has allowed in our life that we miss the opportunity to be a testimony of His grace and strength in spite of those events.
As we begin a new year, let's air out any old "smells" that might be holding us back and press forward as a sweet-smelling savor to God and other.
Finally, there's nothing like curling up with a blanket and a good book. This year I made it a point to include a new book or book series in everyone's stocking. Books can transport us, inspire us, teach us, convict us, entertain us, and motivate us. But rarely, if ever, does one book do all of the above. That is, unless the book you are reading is the Bible. If you're like me, and you started a read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year program last January, then you probably ended the year behind schedule. Rather than get discouraged, take heart and know that a new year is open ahead of us. I plan to keep plugging away until I finish because I know that the Word of God is profitable and that God has promised that His Word will not return void. It will continue to benefit my life even if I'm not "on schedule." The important thing is to be in the Bible regularly so that we can benefit by its instruction, find comfort in its promises, avoid sin from its warnings, and comprehend God's love for us through its message. Other books may be a "one-time reader," but the Bible is new with each reading. Just like the woman who reads and rereads the love letters (or texts for today's generation) from her true love because she cherishes his proclamations of his love for her, we can read God's Word a hundred times and still thrill in the fact that He loves us and wants us to share that love with those around us.
So, 2023. It's new. It's a fresh start. It's exciting to think about the possibilities. I pray as you face this new year that you have received the new life Christ offers, you accept the new cleansing of forgiveness when you slip, that your life is a new, sweet-smelling savor to God and those around you, and that you stay faithful in reading His Word because "His compassions fail not, they are new every morning."
Happy New Year and God bless you!
Comments
Post a Comment