New Year’s resolutions – do you make them? Do you keep them?

I’m not big on them. I never was good at keeping them for more than a few days.

I view the new year rather like a fresh new journal waiting to be written in… a blank canvas waiting for the artist’s brush… a new song to be sung. A fresh start. A time of hope and tremendous potential for doing better than I have done before.

It’s a time for putting away all finished projects, flawed and imperfect as they might be, and begin a brand new one.   

As we stand on the threshold of a new year, it’s easy to see it as a new beginning. Out with the Old, and In with the New. But as Christians, this should be a day-to-day thing. Each morning we would do well to spend time with the Lord, committing the day to Him, and yielding ourselves to following His lead. Each night as we prepare for bed, we would do well to reflect on the day that has just passed, asking the Lord to show us where we strayed from His path.

Paul tells us, in his second letter to the Church in Corinth, that we ourselves are new creatures in Christ – that what belongs to our old life has passed away, and everything has become new in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

If we are Christians, our lives should reflect that – because our thoughts, attitudes, and desires should reflect it, and our actions will follow.

On a larger scale, our friends and family should see a change in us over time – often a dramatic change – because God is changing us, sanctifying us, making us more like our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

On a smaller scale, this is a daily thing. Sin is always close by, and we are often caught giving in to temptation. At the moment we realize this, the scriptures tell us to put off the old man, the actions that belong to our old life, and put on the new man, the life of Christ’s righteousness in us.

Ephesians 4:22-24

²² That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

²³ And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

²⁴ And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

It’s time to leave the old year behind, with all its failures and fears, and face the new year boldly yet humbly, knowing Who will give the strength, courage, and insight, to walk it with Him.  

“As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.” – Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (December 31 reading)