New

So this is the new year... Hmmm... Well, being a new year often comes new years resolutions. I know I have a few... Like more cardio, learn to surf, read more books to name a few. Each new year brings with it new ambitions. Often times we make ridiculous resolutions that never materialise, (like one of mine once was being the 5th member of U2... Ridiculous... But it is good to dream!) Have you made any yet? Why do we do this ritual every year?

Maybe it is because there is something within us that longs for a new start. As you can see from resolutions, we hope for the opportunity to start over, try again, do things differently.

I think we have this desire in us because it is a desire of God... God is in the business of new.

Revelation 21:5 says "And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new!""

It speaks of the newness of what God does in our lives. There is a sense in which God does that every day in our lives. Each day is new each day is fresh. It’s so easy to miss…

There are also new seasons of life. Just look at nature. There is new life all the time - new blossoms, new leaves, new life, new fruit. From winter to spring. From infancy to adulthood. Everything is about new and about change.

There is a scripture that has always stuck out to me, which speaks about the idea that God is in the business of new:

Isaiah 43:18-19 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 desert and streams in the wasteland.

There are some very clear points that come out of this scripture.

Firstly, God is saying we should forget the former things, that we should not dwell on the past. There is this idea that the past haunts us, that there is stuff that happened in the past that is hinering us moving forward. Sometimes we experienced great things in the past and thus constantly look back at those times instead of forward to the newness He has. Maybe there are some things that are in your past that you feel is holding you back. What are these things is your life? Because the promise is that the past is forgotten. God has forgotten it, now we need to.

Secondly, we see again the idea that God is wanting to start something NEW! God is saying to us that he is doing a new thing. What is more, he is wanting to announce it to us. God is wanting to speak to you and me about the newness he has for us. How does God speak to you? Through prayer, solitude, nature, worship? How often do we listen to His leading? The promise is He is speaking, so are we listening?

We also need to understand that with newness comes a new way of doing things. We can’t expect new things if we go about doing them the same way. There is a saying that if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.

Jesus used an awesome analogy to explain it to his disciples.

John’s disciples come to Jesus and asked him why he was doing things differently. Jesus reply in mark 2:22 says:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

When newness comes you have to do things differently... From today you have to start doing things differently. Lets not try put the new wine God wants to pour out into our lives into the old wineskins of how we did things before, or how we expect things to be.

To remember this, why don't you start doing something differently? Drive a new way home? Start a new book? Try a new hairstyle? Try a different Chocolate bar (or in my case, a new fruit!) Whatever it may be, try do something differently.

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"

Don