It does not have to be a new year for something new in your life. The Word is full of promises of new things for your life every day.
“The faithful love of the Lord never ends His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23, NLT).
The love that God has for you is steadfast and unending. Your relationship with God is not based on your efforts because your efforts are of no worth to God. Your relationship with Him is based on Jesus’ perfect work on your behalf. When God sees you, He sees the blood of His Son. There is nothing you do or don’t do that removes God’s love from you. Whatever might happen during your day, His mercies are new each morning. His faithfulness to you is great. He is faithful even when you fail (2 Timothy 2:13).
“God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13, NLT).
Continually receive God’s grace. He gives you the desire to do what pleases Him each day and the power to accomplish it.
The Apostle Paul taught that we should forget the past and press on for the things that Christ has given his life for us to receive. Then we can live by His power and not by our wasted efforts.
“Not that I have already attained or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14, NKJV).
We press on to receive the truth God has for us in His Word. We lay hold of and take the promises Jesus has paid for with His precious blood as our own. We lay hold of God’s will that is revealed in an ever-increasing intimate relationship with Him. Jesus did not just redeem us from our sinful actions. The real miracle is that He redeemed our sinful hearts. We choose to forget what is behind us and move forward into our future trusting and relying on His grace.
Trusting and relying on His grace is not something we do once a year. This is something we do every single day. There may be days you have to remind yourself repeatedly that all the old is gone and you are a new person in Christ. Last year may not have been great. Yesterday may have been bad. You may have worries about failing again. But the Lord’s mercies are new every morning. He is always doing something new in your life.
Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
—Isaiah 43:18-19 (NKJV)
Forget the former things. You are new in Christ, and He does new things in your life. He makes a way in your wilderness. He pours rivers of living water into your desert. But you must receive His truth in your heart. You must press on and take His truth and make it your own.
No matter what things you wish to be new in your life—no matter what sickness may have—no matter what your circumstances—no matter what relationships are hard, God is the God of what the world and your natural mind tell you is impossible. But He can and will do new things in your life.
For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
—2 Peter 1:9 (NKJV)
Don’t be short-sighted and limited to the point of being blind to the new person the Holy Spirit has birthed in you. The person who does this forgets that Jesus has cleansed him of his sins. When you don’t know who you are in Christ, you forget Jesus has forgiven you.
Pursue Him. Believe who the Word says you are. Press on and lay hold of your upward call in Jesus. Honor Him by taking hold of Him as He has taken hold of you.
© 2023 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2024/01/take-hold-of-your-new-life-in-Christ.html
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