What comes to mind when you hear this word?
New baby and excitement of a blessing of new life?
New car and all the great smells and feelings that go with it?
New job full of possibilities?
New school year full of excitement and growth?
New home fresh and clean ready to be decorated and lived in?
Sometimes new is wonderful and just what you needed and wanted.
Sometimes new is dreadful and breaks your heart.
The Bible tells us that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases: His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning: great is your (His) faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23.
How marvelous and miraculous! God’s love is full up and overflowing with mercy coming more than we need every single morning!
That’s enough to cheer us up when feeling a bit blue.
We can get tangled up in memories, past hurts, past joys, past busy days, past relationships, past loves—-but God says in Isaiah 43:18-19: “Forget the former things: do not dwell on the past. 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.”
Do you see those I mages the Bible is painting for you? A great wilderness, but a clear and visible way in it? A dry and arid wasteland and there appears a fresh, clear, delicious stream of water?
Do you feel like those images describe your life at this point? You at this point? Well, read this: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!”
Maybe we need to read it again. In Christ we are a new creation! In a good way; we are new. Ever want to erase the past, start over, and have a clean slate?
How are we “in Christ?” As we repent of our sins, profess our belief and faith in Him as the Only Begotten Son of God, believe that he died on the cross for the sins we committed which were leading directly to our death, believe he rose again on the third day, and is alive today! We make him our Lord and Master. We follow Him and submit to His Holy Spirit coming into our lives to teach, lead, and change us to what God made us to be. We are saved from sin, from our past, from death, and made new to accept His gift of new, eternal life.
Romans 6:4 backs this truth up: “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” I believe it. I put my faith and trust in Him.
Let’s get our walking shoes on!
And walk in the newness of life in Jesus Christ!!
