Wednesday, December 31, 2014

He is New

It is 12:26 am on New Year's Day. The first New Year's Simeon and I have stayed up for in at least three years (the irony of staying up the first year we have a newborn and going to bed early the other three years without one is not lost on me). I am sitting at home, hoping for a reflective spirit of the year behind and of the year ahead, whilst my wonderful husband is retrieving my forgotten phone from our friends's house...again.

Aside from the Times Square celebration playing on the TV, there was no cheering for 2015, no special kiss at midnight, no confetti. This evening, there were friends and families gathered, games played, and conversations shared. 2015 isn't really a new beginning, there's no clean slate, things that happened December 31, 2014, are still going to happen January 1, 2015 (with the exception of messing up checks).

There is always a spirit of new-ness when the new year rings in, though. Why do we crave the resolutions, the new, the clean, the refreshed? We crave Him. We crave the newness of life, the cleanliness, and the refreshment that only He, our Savior and Lord can provide. We celebrate His birth on December 25th every year, but the real joyous occasion, is that we can taste, enjoy and receive the new-ness He has to offer every day of the year.

So this year, let your old bad habits become clean. Let your good habits that have fallen to the wayside become renewed. Sure, go ahead and make that New Year's Resolution. But let Christ make you clean, let God create in you a new heart, and let the Holy Spirit continue to refresh you, because that, is what I am hoping for in the year 2015--that He continues the good work in me, and that I allow it.

Every year, I find a verse that I seem to speak as my own over the year, one I cling to when I desperately need it. Last year, was a simple "Be still and know that I am your God." This year, is seems to be a little hackneyed since I used it on our Christmas 'card' and our New Year's card,  but it is my prayer for the year ahead---I think we will need quite a bit o' peace after all.

Happy New Year, and may it be blessed, indeed!

"Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all."
2 Thessalonians 3:16 

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