We Can Start Things Anew

Happy New Year!

It can be such a wonderful encouragement to have this annual reminder in our calendars because it gives us a sense that we can start things anew.

To some, the New Year may bring reminders of a painful past, but we have a Living God who has given us His promises to give us a future hope.

Our focus verses for this New Year’s show is Ezekiel 36:26-28. God promises to give His people a heart of flesh—a new heart, a new spirit. He also promises to put His Spirit in them, to move them to follow Him. Here is the great news as we move forward from Christmas and into the New Year.

We are people of the New Covenant in Christ, through whom we have received freedom from sin and the gift of salvation. We are the Church after the Pentecost, when the promised Holy Spirit was poured out upon all people (Acts 2). God has given to you and to me His Spirit, who enables and empowers us, to be obedient. The kind of obedience that leads us into blessing—true blessings in the midst of all our worldly woes, concerns and turmoil; we have peace, grace, blessing and power.

In short, the spiritual battle is ours to lose—last year, this year and until the day Christ returns. We are indeed more than conquerors (Romans 8) so let us not give way so easily but rather resist and stand firm (James 4:7; Ephesians 6:14). Every day, this promise is real for His daughters and His sons. May 2019 be a year of deep spiritual growth.

May He bless your Bible reading with spiritual wisdom from above. May His Presence flood your prayer life, fortifying your heart for the days to come.