“Leave the broken, irreversible past in God’s hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.” – Oswald Chambers
So here we find ourselves again with a fresh new year. We love these moments that help us to erase, at least temporarily, the mistakes of the past 365 days. While we know there is nothing different from December 31st to January 1st, we catch ourselves in revisited hope and refreshed dreams of what this year may bring. We believe that no matter the struggles of the previous year, we are granted a new identity to reinvent and a fresh start toward something greater – a life more noble.
And this is the gospel made practical. There is something deep within us that screams for hope. It believes beyond reason that the best days are ahead and that the chains of the past have rusted through the tension of grace. A new year has been purchased for us without merit or payment. It is merely a delayed Christmas gift. On New Year’s as well as in the Christian life, we walk into a million futures and lay waste to a thousand pasts. This divine energy rules our days and commands our nights. Let this be as true in June as it is in January.
We were born to be agents of hope and refreshment. Somehow along the way, our signals got crossed and our truest identity was choked out by circumstance and deferred dreams. The Gospel of the New Year revives this in us. It grants the most broken of hearts life support. The saint now has a future and a hope that transcends whatever the new year has in store.
It starts with a step. The walk of hope is a courageous one. It is never a walk of naivety or ignorance but a relentless stride with the steel-spined resolve of a child of grace. The Lord is a fighter and this year we rely on His strength. There is no burden too great to unlatch you from the hands of our loving Father.
Matt simon blog 