New Year, Fresh Start
Thank you for spending some of your time with me. A new year is always seen as a time for a new and fresh start! If you have experienced many trials and tribulations this past year, I pray you will be encouraged and inspired by the Word for better things ahead. Eric
As we start a new year, many of us set goals to bring positive changes to our lives. We call these, ‘New Year’s Resolutions!’ Often these resolutions include things like: losing weight, eating healthier, working less hours, spending less money, spending more quality time with our children, be more faithful in our church attendance, beginning to tithe or to be more faithful to have daily devotions with God. We usually start off all right, however, quite often, we start to slip up and fail to make the right choices to follow through and have success.
All of us have failed in certain areas of our lives and have come to realize that we need help.
The best source of help we can have is the help we receive from the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was with the disciples for the Last Supper, prior to His crucifixion, He promised that after His death, the Father would send another “Helper,” the Spirit of Truth.
Jesus spoke these words in John 14:15-17, "If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” The word ‘give’ in verse 16, didomi in the Greek, means; granting, bestowing, imparting and presenting. It implies giving an object of value. It gives freely and is unforced.
“Advocate” was translated from the Greek word, ‘paraklitos’, it also means: Helper, Comforter and Counselor. The root word is parakaleo meaning, “to call to one’s side.’
Did you notice, Jesus then said the ‘Helper or Advocate’ would be with, be present or abide with them forever - for eternity! The Holy Spirit is given to us freely by the Father. He will be by our side and with us forever! Whatever our need, He will help, comfort and give us good counsel! That is such good news!
Let’s look at Jesus’ words in Luke 11:13, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" It is a beautiful thing to realize that to get His help, we simply have to ask!
Our primary needs are spiritual and a proper relationship with God through the Holy Spirit is the ground of assurance that He will provide both spiritual and material needs.
We have, in previous posts, shared that we are all born with a sin nature. However, praise God, when we enter into a personal relationship with Jesus, we become a ‘new creation!’ (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT). “Christ’s death and resurrection for us, and our identification with Him by faith make existence as a new creation possible. (Textual notes, New Spirit Filled Life Bible)
Romans 6:4 (ESV) reveals. “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.” When you were baptized, you were spiritually baptized into Jesus’s death. You are no longer bound to follow sin’s destructive ways. Our old lives and habits cannot hold us back from change.
Admittedly, some changes in our lives occur instantly, however, some of the changes will occur over time. You must understand, we have a free will and some changes that are needful will take place as we mature in our walk with the Lord. Philippians 1:6 reads, “ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” “As we walk in faith we must learn to see our present circumstances in light of the future promises of God. Though we are works in progress now, we have hope knowing that God will complete the work He is doing in us!” (New Spirit Filled Life Bible, Truth in Action).
Following our receiving the salvation offered through Jesus’s sacrifice, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we begin the necessary transformation process.
You might ask, “What are we being transformed into? 2 Corinthians 3:18 reveals the answer, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. We are transformed into the same image of consummate excellence that shines in Christ!
We need to remember that, Biblically, sin has no power over us and we can choose to reject it, whatever that sin may be. We are instructed in Romans 6:5-7 that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin! With our pre-conversion life, we lived under the unrestrained dominion of the flesh (our sin nature). Praise God, when we are born again by accepting the salvation Jesus’ death and resurrection brought to us - we are new creations! That old sin nature no longer has the power to control us!
Nor does the enemy of our soul, the devil, have power over us. Even though he lies to you, telling you that you are powerless - You Are Not! In fact, we have been given authority over all the power of the enemy! (Luke 10:19).
When we miss the mark and sin, it does not overcome us. 1 John 1:9 reveals that when we confess and repent (turn away from it) from our sin, He forgives and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Then we read in Psalm 103:11 and 12 that His mercy toward us is great and He removes our sin as far as the east is from the west. It is important to note though what the Word reveals about one who willfully continues in sin after they have received the knowledge of the truth. Hebrews 10:26 and 27, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”
So, it’s time to consider the fact that we are facing a New Year - a time when many of us see it as a fresh start!
The best resolution we can make is to determine to walk more closely with the Lord in 2025. Let’s determine we will spend more time reading the Word of God and being obedient.
Seek God in prayer, ask Him for a revelation of what in your life needs fixed, Psalm 139:23 and 24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Then allow Him to help you accomplish any changes that need to be made.
Paul made note in Philippians 3:12 -15 that he is reaching for maturity. He stated that part of that process is to leave the past in the past and reach forward to what is ahead. We cannot change the past, however we can change the future!
The most effective way we can pray is to pray the Scriptures.
I have been praying the following prayer: “Help me Holy Spirit to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify it’s desires. (Romans 13:14). Help me to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5), and thank You for transforming me from glory to glory into the image of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
“Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change. We need to remind ourselves that God can change things. Outlook determines outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory.” (Warren Wiersbe)
God desires for each of us that we continue to grow in that ‘newness’ of life which He has provided. That is the wonderful thing about facing a New Year! Whatever stagnation or mistakes we’ve made doesn’t have to remain.
God specializes in giving people a Fresh Start!
Have a blessed New Year!
Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are taken from the New International Version.
NLT New Living Translation
ESV English Standard Version