It is the beginning of a new year. Many people make resolutions to make changes in their lives, are you one of them? Why do you think that people do that? What is it about the start of a new year many of us decide to evaluate our lives and look what needs to be changed? Is it because the new year singles a new start or new beginning? I am not sure. Do we all need to at times need to examine our lives and make changes? Let me tell you what God has told me about how new beginnings bring hope.
Perhaps a new year is a break in time in most peoples minds and therefore they think this is a good time to make a new beginning. None the less whether it is now at the beginning of the year or at a time when you desperately need a change because everything is going badly or some other day like your birthday or an anniversary it does not matter. What matters I believe is that I need to evaluate my life make changes and start over from the beginning. The Apostle Paul tells us that we must examine our own faith. “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” 2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV) This is not permission to examine someone else’s faith just my own.
James tells me that one of the things I must examine is my actions related to my faith. James 1:23-25 says, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (ESV)
I also must allow God to examine me according to King David in Psalms 139 which starts out like this,” To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me…” (ESV)
I have found that this new beginning stats with the renewing of ones mind as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 which says,” I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (ESV) This is where my hope comes from. By first evaluating my position with Christ then by seeking him and finally by renewing my mind so I can present myself as a living sacrifice to God.
I pray that you will have a new beginning if you need to start afresh. A new commitment to more closely the teachings of the Bible is s positive step for renewed hope but also remember that it is not a requirement to becoming saved. Your forgiveness is not dependent upon your own actions but by grace through faith. The knowledge of being forgiven brings me hope. Remember though that all sin is forgivable except the sin of unbelieve in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross satisfied the penalty for my sins and yours as well. It satisfied all my sins from the past, in the present, and in the future. My penalty and yours were satisfied on the cross by the death of Jesus, God’s greatest act of love and wrath, who became sin for me and you. It was also God’s greatest act of faithfulness because “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV) Because wisdom shows us, we need to believe in Jesus. I hope that you join me in helping others to choose Jesus.
If you have not read my previous blogs, you can find them here. You can watch a book trailer about my book. You can find my book, Hope Amid Hopelessness: Our Abba Father Provides a Way Through Mental Illness here. eBook or Audiobook versions can be found at Westbow Press
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