It’s a new year! The ball dropped, the calendar turned and it’s now the year 2022. So what’s new? It feels like the last year and the year before that. In 2020 we first heard the word COVID. In 2021 COVID became a household term. As the calendar rolled from 2021 to 2022 the cases of COVID seem to have risen and not subsided. Still it is a NEW YEAR and with it comes the promise of something NEW.

NEW promises something different, something better. It implies something fresh or unused. It even stands in the place of the OLD and creates NEW. By definition it brings HOPE. It holds the promise of replacing despair and pessimism with aspiration and optimism. Oh, how we desperately need the NEW!

Well, I have good news and the answer to the question, “So What’s New?”  

The answer is, YOU ARE!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the NEW creation has come: The old has GONE, The NEW IS HERE!”  II Corinthians 5:17

TRUTH BOMB

EVERYONE WHO IS IN CHRIST JESUS IS MADE NEW!

When we are in Christ Jesus we are NEW! The OLD has passed away, it is GONE!

If you are anything like me, you need reminding of that!  It is so easy to fall back into OLD patterns. We continue to go to church and expect everything to be like it was before. Yet, we expect growth and newness. We open our devotionals for the NEW year and read them with the same old mindset and expect our hearts to be made new. We continue in the same exercise patterns, or lack of, and wonder why our body still aches. We continue to make the wrong food choices yet expect our weight to not fluctuate! And we turn the calendar page over from December 31, 2021, to January 1, 2022 and expect COVID to disappear. When we continue to follow our same “old” path, we can expect the same “old” outcome.

There is a parable told by Jesus that illustrates this point for us;

“No one tears a piece from a NEW garment and puts it on an OLD garment. If he does, he will tear the NEW, and the piece from the NEW will not match the OLD. And no one puts NEW wine into OLD wineskins. If he does, the NEW wine will burst the OLD wineskins and the wine will spill and be destroyed. But NEW wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” Luke 5:36-38

Jesus is teaching us through a parable, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, that in order for change to occur we must walk in the NEW! It is good to remember the OLD, learn from it, and even expound upon it. But change and growth will only come as we walk in the NEW! The coming of Jesus Christ brings opportunity for repentance, regeneration and new forms of worship.

JESUS IS THE NEW! He has made us NEW through Him! WE ARE NEW CREATIONS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD!

Yes, we may still be waking up to COVID, to routine schedules and to chaos in our world.

But make no mistake about it, WE ARE NEW CREATIONS IN JESUS and we are being RENEWED daily as we set our minds, hearts and spirits on HIM!

As we begin a NEW year, I am praying that God will give us a NEW focus, one that is committed to embracing the NEW that God Himself puts before us! I am determined to commit to this with you and look forward to diving deep into God’s Word with you each week of this NEW Year. See you back here next week as God reveals more of His Truth to us, His NEW creations!

Speak Truth Love