A Fresh Start With Fresh Strength and Fresh Abundance
Do you need new life for the new year? Fresh strength? A new start? A blessed path?
God is making all things new! Even our hard pathways will overflow with abundance.
- “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)
- “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5, NIV)
Making Everything New
If your life has been like mine, this past year has been hard and discouraging. I didn’t think circumstances could get any worse than they have been for the past three years. (I spent years unable to eat food due to untreatable Long Covid asthma. A feeding tube is not an option either, as enteral nutrition would also trigger an asthma attack.)
Life has been unimaginably rough and disappointing the past few years. But the holiday season presents unavoidable landmarks in time on which to reflect and compare. It’s nearly impossible to not remember last year… and notice that as sick as I was last year, this year is worse.
The Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season last year was a low point. I couldn’t figure out how I was going to obtain enough nutrition to stay alive. … But this year, I’m even more sick and disabled. It’s tempting to lose hope.
However, the God who created the world is currently making everything new!
You and I have a reason to hope! To believe God to do what He promised! To expect Him to guide us, provide for us, and make even our hard pathways overflow with abundance.
Watch for the New Thing
We can’t afford to dwell on what happened this past year. If we do, we’ll miss what God is doing in the days to come!
We must stand alert, watching, and ready for the new thing God is doing in our lives!
“Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.” (Isaiah 43:18-19, GNT)
God is leading us and forging a path for us in the new year.
“He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:2-3, ESV)
I desperately need a restored soul. Don’t you? The past four years have left me mentally, physically, and spiritually drained to the core. But God promised us a restored and refreshed soul!
The word for “restore” in the original language means to “turn back,” to “return to the starting point,” or to do something “again.”
I ache for the person I used to be spiritually. For the spiritual hunger I used to have. Life has taken me through an extended spiritual drought that has left me parched to the bone. I can’t seem to go backward and become the person I used to be no matter how badly I long for it, or how hard I strive for it … or how deeply I mourn for the person I used to be.
But there is good news for you and me! God promised us a restored soul!
Abundance
Jesus is guiding us every moment of our lives. We are never outside of His love and power, no matter how pitch black our dark night of the soul might be.
He will lead us every minute of the coming year. And what’s more? He will leave abundance in His wake—even in the hard places:
“You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.” (Psalm 65:11, NLT)
New Year Blessings
So let’s embrace the new year with confident expectation in God! Not with doom and gloom . . . or comparisons to what God has allowed to happen in our past . . or with negativity and doubt.
He is doing a new thing in our lives!
Song: “Happy New Year” by Steven Curtis Chapman
RELATED ARTICLES
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, Shades of Grace will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
“Natalie Grace Nichols is experiencing God’s grace and freely expressing it. My wife, Betty, and I thank God for the ministry of Jesus through Natalie.”
“I’m so thankful that God is raising up women like Natalie for a new generation, providing biblically balanced teaching, encouragement, and comfort for people who are enduring life’s trials.”
