We have a New Year, we often think this is also an opportunity to have a clean slate to make things right.   We have made resolutions to make this year so much better (if we would just keep them).   We all want a fresh start to be rid of the sin in our lives.

James 1:  21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

We often do not approach this humbly, we assure ourselves the task before us will happen, and we will make God pleased with us.  We may even hope God will love us more.  God cannot love us more, God loves us totally.   He is always thinking about us we are never out of His thoughts.  He just wants our attention.  He has so many blessing to give us, all we would have to do is ask.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

When we are purified we are fresh and clean, this has nothing to do with a New Year.  Being purified fresh and clean has to do with a death and a resurrection stemming from the profound love God has for us.  We live in a fallen world, God is the only one who can lead us above this fallen world.

We do cling to our sins, they are ours.   We mistake the change they bring to our lives as comfort because they are familiar.  Sins can be like old friends, we may not have spoken to them for a while but they are always ready for an opportunity to come back into our lives.

James 1:13-15 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;  but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Our sins come from our own evil desires.  These desires can originate in escape, power, love or comfort.  God will not take the sin away, we have to make the choice to disown the sin.  We have ownership until we decide we no longer truly want that sin in our lives.  Our sins do not own us, we own them and we are able to get disown them through giving God all our heart.

Jeremiah 29:12-13 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Our desires can seem to benefit us for a while but the consequences always catch up with us, the consequences loom in the darkness waiting to pounce upon us.  God is not like that, God will guide us and direct us in good and perfect ways.

James 1:16-18 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.

God greets each new day fresh and clean, refreshing us with rest and desiring to fellowship with us; to build a relationship based on love.  Too often we begin our day without seeing where God wants to be in our lives, we may seem too busy or rushed in the morning to seek God, but He is always there ready to meet us.  Great men of faith are known to have their time with God in the morning.  God doesn’t want us to simply check in with Him before we go to sleep at night.  God wants to build a relationship with Him.

Lamentations 3:22-23 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

God wants us to know we have a fresh start with Him, in every moment, as we recognize our sin and repent of our sin, seeking God with our whole heart.  We don’t have to wait for a new week or a new year or even a new morning.  We are to remember we can be new now.

2 Corinthians 5:19-21 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God is ready to meet you fresh each morning to form a deeper and more meaningful  relationship built on the love God has for us, this will help you to love Him at a deeper level.  This is so much richer than working at trying to have a clean slate.

Written and posted by Joyce E Poggensee

Verses referenced James 1:  21,  1 John 1:9,James 1:13-18, 2 Corinthians 5:19-21, Lamentations 3:22-23 Jeremiah 29:12-13