A New Life Burgeons in the New Year!

“Behold, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21:5

Isn’t that a wonderful promise?  God is big enough to make the rough, smooth.  To make the choppy waters a delight.  To make purpose out of messes.

The believer is promised, through Christ, that we are made new.  Really?  What does it mean to be a New Creation in Christ?  Paul says:   Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (The Message)

Don’t you love the word “anyone” ?  We all get a fresh start.  We all have the opportunity to be new and different every day in Christ.  What a great promise going into a New Year! 

And why are we so blessed to receive the newness of a new day, day after day?  Keep reading in 2 Corinthians 5 and you see that Paul says it’s all about relationships.  God gives us an opportunity to get a fresh start so that we may encourage others and proclaim the Good News of the hope of the Messiah.  Look how he finishes the thought:

We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (The Message).

We can look back at the old year and say, “no, this year will be different.”  I hope it will be for you.  I hope you will find the courage to move beyond the old, the routine, the mundane… those things which may have tangled you up or brought you down.

Let’s look ahead in 2012 with boldness and confidence.  God’s grace is fresh for us every single day.  “A new life burgeons!”  Can you see it?

© 2012. Rich Ronald