All Things New

2015 has arrived!  A new year which offers hope, dreams, and fresh starts.  It’s almost as if one is given permission to wipe the slate clean and start all over again.  When I taught school, it was refreshing to come into my room on Monday mornings and find the chalkboards cleaned, clear, and ready for a new week of instruction.  A new year tends to encourage one to consciously get rid of the habits that are not beneficial in order to make room for and embrace the ones that are healthy, productive, and bring about positive change.

From personal experience, I know that I cannot depend on just my wishes, desires, or commitment to ensure that I am successful.  My hope is not built on a clean chalkboard, new grading period, new job, or even a new year, but rather trust and faith in the One who makes all things new.  And God’s new is not dependent on a once a week or once a year occurrence.  He offers transformation every second of the day.  Jeremiah 29:11 states, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  That’s great news to depend on, believe in, and embrace at the beginning of a new year.

See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:19

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

2 Corinthians 5:17