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A New Year - A New Beginning
If you could rewrite this past year, what would be your theme?
How would life differ from what you have already experienced?
Do you feel like you are simply spinning your wheels?
Are you confused?
Does your life consist of the same old, same old?
The Lord has communicated one of the most beautiful promises in the book of Isaiah. It came at a time when Israel could use a spiritual jumpstart. They were fearful and sometimes lured by strange gods and the Lord God reminds His people of His awesome power.
Isaiah 43:1-2
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But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee,
O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou
art mine.
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When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be
burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
There's no doubt that the unfailing purpose and plan of God Almighty is sketched across the passages of Isaiah and then He says in
Isaiah 43:18-19
- Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
- Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
In other words, God says to Israel you ain't seen nothing yet!
Most people get stranded some where on the dark dismal roads of the past, and like a haunting, horrifying predator, it dares them to make a move forward. In fact, the past is one of the heaviest burdens that we somehow seem to carry throughout life. But be mindful that we cannot change the past; in fact, there is nothing we can do about the past! The fear of failing again or being hurt or betrayed one more time is for some, the greatest hindrance to taking the next step.
Having persecuted the Church, and supervising the arrest of many Christians and even worse, personally seeing that some were killed, the apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians declares ...
Philippians 3:13-14
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Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before,
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I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The mastery of Isaiah's message is that there must come a turning point, in which you move on, get on with life and get a life! Letting go seems so hard, but as Peter reminds us ...
1 Peter 5:7
Casting all your care upon him, because he careth for you.
or as the Psalmist sings ...
Psalm 55:22
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee:
he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Release to the Lord the problems of the past, the powerless years of defeat and failure.
God has promised ... Behold, I will do a new thing. Imagine, a new road prepared in the undeveloped wilderness, and that's exactly what God promised. Picture, a fresh water river running through the desert, and that's precisely what God said He would do!
God wants to restore those years that the cankerworms have eaten; bind up the broken hearted, and give life to dead dreams; power to the weak, productivity to the procrastinator, creativity to the casual and healing to the wounded eagle.
Don't resist God's new direction in your life, or the new thing that He's doing, you may not understand it, but remember God's ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.
Write this down somewhere so that you can see it often
Psalm 37:23
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD:
and he delighteth in his way.
The Lord is working IN you, ON you, WITH you and FOR you!
~ author unknown ~
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