By God’s grace we have entered a new year and have already started to write the first pages in our book of life for the year ahead.
If you are not happy with how you have lived in the years that have passed, there will be new possibilities before you. It can truly be a new year for you, with a new life that you can live to the glory of Christ. All of life’s problems can be solved.
Jesus came into the world for this very reason: to save people from their sin and unhappiness. He came to set everyone free who is caught up in their own sins and to preach freedom to those who are helpless and burdened with all kinds of trouble. He came to make everything right, praised be His holy name! He came to make you happy, you who are so sad. The year ahead can be a rich and blessed year for you, no matter how you have lived before.
Go forward to a bright future
Be quick to make things right with God and people, because time is short. If you have brought your past in order, do not keep thinking about how bad your past was – for then your future will also be destroyed. Satan has taken more than enough of your precious life. Lift up your head, trust in God and go forward to a bright future.
“But people who wait for the Lord to help them will receive new strength. They will rise up high, as if they have the wings of eagles. They will run and they will not become tired. They will walk and they will not become weak.” Isaiah 40:31 (EASY). Hallelujah! They run without getting tired to do the good things which God planned for them a long time ago, until they reach the glorious goal.
“Look at the new thing I am going to do. It is already happening. Don't you see it? I will make a road in the desert and rivers in the dry land.” Isaiah 43:19 (NCV). God be praised! Rivers of living water can flow into your “desert life” and change you into a garden full of fruits. This can happen quickly.
But we are not invited to a life without battles and difficulties. Not at all! We have been invited to a race of faith. “We have around us many people whose lives tell us what faith means. So let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back.” Hebrews 12:1 (NCV).
Jesus has promised that our race in these battles and difficulties will be a victory race if we are willing to receive the power He wants to give us from one moment to the next.
God will make you a hero
Heroes are formed in the many great trials and tests of life. This is true for the heroes of this world as well as for the heroes of the kingdom of God. If men like Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samuel, Jephthah and David, etc., didn’t have to go through such great trials, we would never have known their names.
God has now planned something better for us, and we are to be part of the heroes of the New Testament. Now it is our turn to be faithful in small trials and in difficult trials, because the one who overcomes the sin in himself is greater than he who captures a great city (Proverbs 16:32).
Only the heroes of the New Testament have managed to overcome the sin in themselves, for they have the Spirit of Christ in their hearts. Here Jesus is the first and greatest hero, and God wants to make a hero of everyone who is willing – not so that this person can be called a hero in this world, but in the world to come!
May the Lord greatly bless the new year for all of us, so that it can become the most blessed and fruitful year in which we have ever lived.