Happy New Year! Each New Year, we love to grasp at new things, whether that’s New Year’s Resolutions, goals or targets. Ultimately, however, none of these matter, because none of us know what God has ordained for us for the year ahead.
The Bible teaches us that we can’t plan for the future
13Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
(James 4:13-14)
But the great news is that it doesn’t matter that we don’t know what the future holds, because God does.
It doesn’t matter what our plans are, it matters what God’s plans are!
11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
(Jeremiah 29:11)
In Jeremiah 29:11, the Jews were in captivity, held in Babylon, and God was promising them a return to their Promised Land, Israel. Just like the Jews had a future and a hope of being brought back to the land of Israel, we have promises of God too. No matter the circumstances were last year, no matter what the future looks like this year, we, as Christians, have an eternal hope to look forward to that doesn’t depend on our circumstances in this life. Christ Himself (our relationship with Him, becoming like Him, spending eternity with Him) is the prize:
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 3:12-14)
The Apostle Paul’s earthly circumstances were awful. When he wrote many of his letters in the New Testament, he was shipwrecked or imprisoned for spreading the Gospel, but he focused himself on the goal of Jesus as his hope for the future.
Putting it bluntly: it doesn’t matter if you have the best or worst life right now, but if you’re a Christian, you have everything to look forward to in eternity!
So Happy New Year! Each year, we need to ask some questions: what do we need to start? What do we need to stop? What things do we need to pick up? What things do we need to put down? What habits do we need to begin? What habits need to cease?
The most important thing is that when we make these decisions, we need to cover them in prayer, bringing everything to God’s Throne of Grace. We should also mediate on Scripture, as it gives us the best teaching about what things to do and what things not to do.
Pastor Jonny brought us a message this morning from Ephesians, another of Paul’s letters:
22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26“In your anger do not sin” d : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold. 28Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
(Ephesians 4:25-32)
Paul is writing to tell us to “put off the old nature” and “put on new nature”. As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit living within us. The Holy Spirit convicts us of what to put down (sin), but we don’t always remember to live fully in the new life, the Christian walk, with a life immersed in prayer and Scripture.
If we don’t clothe ourselves in the new self, then we are more vulnerable to going back to the old sins. It happens in all areas of life, with habits, diets, everything. If we remove an old destructive sinful habit but fail to replace it with a new wholesome habit, it creates a void in us, making it easy to slip back into the old sinful habit.
Using a diet analogy, we should seek to replace bad diet with good food. We should seek to replace sin with time immersed in prayer and time experiencing the wholesome things, living out the Fruit of the Spirit,
instead of focusing on not doing a certain sin, we need to switch our focus on Jesus and the things He has granted us to do. The more time we focus on living in the “no zone”, focusing on what we cannot and should not do, the more likely we will be to fall.
Instead, we need to move into the “yes zone”, immersing ourselves in the things God gives us the Christian liberty to step into.
In our diet analogy, we need to replace cake with fruit. Rather than focusing on not being able to eat cake, we instead need to focus on getting into habit of eating and enjoying eating fruit instead.
If we live in the “no zone”, self-reliance becomes a big thing instead of God-reliance. It also creates a Pharisee attitude. Not stepping into the “fruit” causes us to wither away as well.
Traps we can fall into
Perfectionism
Satan wants to tell us that we are going to have a perfect year to tempt us into self-reliance. The moment we mess up, we think the year is now ruined. We need to understand that we will never reach perfection in this life. But Jesus is the author and perfect of our faith, He is sanctifying us over the years, perfecting us, making us more Christ-like.
Once for all decision
We need to pick up our cross daily. Good habits only happen over time. Following Jesus is not a once forever decision, it’s a daily decision.
New Christ-like-living might not immediately feel quite right
Familiarity with the old life doesn’t make the old life right. We are a new creation in Jesus and it won’t immediately feel quite right. Eventually it will feel more fulfilling to turn back on old life and live holy, as Christ would have us walk.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we should make a New Year’s Resolution to fix our eyes on Jesus, cast our burdens on Him and trust Him with our future, because He cares for us. Let’s take off the old, put on the new, as that’s what repentance, turning from sin and coming to Jesus, is all about.
We wish you a Happy New Year and invite you to join us starting next Sunday for 21 days of prayer and fasting, a time to prepare us for the rest of the year.