All Things New 2022
Erin Adams, LPC, MAMFT, NCC
January is the time we all start thinking about starting fresh. Some of us set New Year’s Resolutions. And some of us have decided to never make resolutions again but somehow the New Year feels like a time for a fresh start. And so, we vow to lose 20 lbs, to read more books, to run a marathon, to make a career change, or engage in a new hobby. So often these great plans last us about 3 weeks and we find ourselves right back in the same place we were last year. I think one of the reasons we fail at sticking with new behaviors in the New Year is because many of the changes we are really after have deeper roots than a behavior modification plan can take us.
Believers know that the whole of Scripture points out this pattern of not measuring up to our own - or God’s – expectations. The Old Testament reveals God’s Law and through that, His expectations for His children. Try as we might, we cannot meet those expectations; thus leading to perpetual offerings to God of our failures and sins and seeking forgiveness. In our own strength we do not seem to break through unhealthy habits, patterns and addictions. Christmas has just declared the Good News that Jesus came to break the patterns that we could not break and to set us free from sin and unhealthy patterns of living. He came to make all things new! And in Him, we are made new! We are not who we once were but are a new creation!
Now begins the work of living as a new creation. More than trying harder or planning better, this freedom often comes in being still and drawing near to God. This may mean renewing our minds with quiet time with the Lord or going deeper in the Word through Bible Studies or meditating on the Word. The renewing of our minds with the Lord changes our perspectives which changes our motivations which changes our behaviors. And that leads to all sorts of new things in the New Year!
Here are a few Scriptures to help you begin meditating on God’s promises to make us new:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43: 18-19
“Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’” Lamentations 3:22-24
“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” Revelation 21:5a
“Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off” Proverbs 24:14
Let us begin this New Year not by trying harder and making more plans but by being still and drawing close to the One who makes all things new!
