New Year - New You

by Greg Quinn

January 2nd, 2021

Today is a new day. Today is the beginning of a new year. The beginning of a new decade. Two thousand and twenty-one. Today many people make "vows", "pledges", or "resolutions". You start out with a firm commitment that this year is not going to be like the last one. Maybe your resolution is to be a better husband or wife. Maybe your resolution is to lose weight. Maybe your resolution is to get in better health. Maybe it's to better relationships with family or friends. Maybe it is to work less, or to get a new job and work more. Maybe it is to work to obtain a new home, new car, or other possessions. Maybe it is to become a better person. Maybe your new year vow is to be a better Christian, or perhaps to discover what many of us already know, that there is much more to the meaning of life than what you have encountered in the past.

As you step into the first day of the new year and the new decade, for some this is the only time during the year that you actually plan the future. You make resolutions today that you will break tomorrow or next week or next month. Then you settle back into the hum-drum of another year of existence, of giving up on your goals and dreams, of "settling for" another year. You become satisfied that your situation is not going to change. You become convinced that you are not going to change. You give up hope. You start another year as before. You believe what others say about you. You believe what the liberal news media says about our world, our country, your role. A week or month or several months from now, you forget the passion for the vision you held today.

But this doesn't have to happen. God has a better plan.

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.

We tend to want to change circumstances instead of changing ourselves. Instead of just a "new year", why not dedicate yourself to becoming a "new you".

First, realize that you cannot change yourself. If you could change yourself, then the largest sections of book stores would be gone (Self Help). If you could change yourself, wouldn't you have done that already? Last year? Ten years ago? Why did you wait until now, the beginning of 2021, if you could have made the changes years ago? 

Secondly, it isn't nearly as difficult to make changes by asking God to change you instead of trying to do it yourself. Trying to do it yourself has failed every year. Why not try asking God, your Creator, the One who knows you better than you know yourself, to enter in and make the changes you have been trying unsuccessfully to make for many, many years?

PSALM 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Third, it is simple to ask God to help you. He made you. He loves you. Christ died so that you might live a great live of abundance on earth as well as have a future with God in Heaven. God's love is for everyone. Even you. With all your failures and past unsuccessful attempts? Yes, even you. Even me. Every one of us.

So how do we do it? Again, the Bible has the answer.

JOHN 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So instead of this year you trying to make the changes all on your own, as you have tried to do so many times before, why not go to the God who loves you, who died for you, and ask Him to help you? Resolve right now to allow God to wipe your slate clean by confessing your sins and asking Jesus into your heart and live and ask Him to help you.

PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14
Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

It's a new year. It can be a new you. This year can be the first where your resolutions can become fact instead of fantasy. Ask God to renew you, then you (and others around you) will enjoy a new year and a new you.

God bless, and Happy New Year.

Greg Quinn