Starting Anew

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!  ~2 Corinthians 5:17

We are just two days away from 2016, a new year with new beginnings. Every year people around the world make New Year's resolutions. The top ten New Year's resolutions are to lose weight, get organized, spend less, save more, enjoy life to the fullest, stay fit and healthy, learn something, quit smoking, help others in their dreams, fall in love, and spend time with family. If we think about resolutions, most of them are made to make us a “better” person. We make resolutions at the beginning of each year because we want things to be different; we want things to be new. What better time than with a new year?

I find it interesting that so many people wait for a new year before they try to make changes in their lives; before they try to make things anew. What we lose sight of is that we celebrated the birth of Jesus just a week ago. In that very act God enacted his plan to redeem us, to restore us, to make us new. Paul tells us that if we believe in Jesus, we are a new creation, the old is gone and we are made new.

New Year’s resolutions come and go. Some we keep, others we don’t, but one thing that we can be certain of is that we don’t have to wait for a new year to be made new. Every day we stumble, every day we fall. But we do not have to be identified by our stumbling or our failures because our identity is in Christ. Because of Christmas, because of Jesus, every day is a new day. Every day is a chance to be better, to be more like Christ in all we do.

So forget the resolutions this year and make each day anew. Some will be better and some will be worse, but in Christ every day is new. A day to start over. A day when we can show a little more of Christ’s love to those around us. A day when we can walk a little closer to God.