(This week’s devotions are based on Week 1 of the Series, “The Power of a Fresh Start!” WATCH HERE)
Happy New Year!
A week into the new year has the “newness” of the year worn off? Perhaps you have gotten used to seeing “2024” and even mastered writing “24” instead of “23.” The celebration of the new year quickly fades into the routine that make it just “another” year. The brief relief of letting go of the year past and embracing the new year perhaps has quickly faded.
But there is something about new starts that we all love. Fresh starts allow us to put something in the past and embrace the possibilities of the future. A fresh start allows us to let go of failures and embark on a new vision ahead.
The start of a new year is a natural time for a new beginning. Perhaps you have made some resolutions to do some things differently this year (How are you doing on yours?). There is power in a fresh start.
New starts are not foreign to the Christian. In fact the power of a fresh start comes from our relationship with Jesus. Our life as Christians is the reality of a fresh start. The Apostle Paul put it this way: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Consider these “fresh starts” God gives us.
In our baptism…
Romans 6:3-4 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
In the Lord’s Supper we live in the new covenant of forgiveness instead of the Old Testament law:
Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
The promise of heaven is a promise of an eternity in the new heavens void of all the suffering of the current earth:
Revelation 21:1-5 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
The truth is that when we are with Jesus by faith, he makes everything new. He gives us a new identity (Child of God); he gives us new purpose (to live for him); he gives us a new relationship with him (Our sins are forgiven); and much more. There is nothing better than a fresh start that the Spirit of God gives us when we are connected to the Lord by faith in Jesus. It’s this new, fresh start that we will unpack in the days ahead. It’s this fresh start that we get to enjoy every day of 2024!
Apply: In what part of your life do you need a fresh start? How does your connection to Jesus give that new, fresh start?
Prayer: Lord, thank you in your grace for giving me new life, forgiveness, and new connection to you. Enable me to enjoy and live in this fresh start each day! AMEN.