Human beings are temporal creatures, we were created with a beginning and we were meant to last for an eternity. The life we live occurs in cycles. We look forward to a new day dawning and our weeks consist of dreading Monday, rejoicing in hump day and celebrating Friday.
We complain about the heat of summer and despair over dark and cold winter days always wishing for the opposite season but I rarely hear anybody complain about spring or fall.
In Hebrew, the New Year is Rosh Hashanah or the head of the year. The beginning of each month is also referred to as the head of the month. So as we transition on our Gregorian calendar to a new year we have an opportunity.
Each change of the calendar from month to year is a new beginning when the old things passed away and all things are made new. We find this description in the book of Revelation of Jesus Christ, he says “behold, I make all things new”.
So before we celebrate the end of 2015 and rejoice in the new beginning of 2016 we should take a moment to take stock of who we are and how we are living our lives.
New beginnings are possible but they will not have the staying power that we look for without the Lord because Jesus made it clear that he is the way, the truth and the life. This means that He is the beginning of that life we desire that he is also the life that we live, He is the way in which we live.
Be honest with yourself, what kind of life have you been living? What does your day-to-day lifestyle look like? Are you self-centered and self-serving or are you striving to be more like Jesus by looking into the word of God and living it out.
I have to ask the same things of myself and the New Year is a great time to do that. We need to take a cold hard look in the mirror and ask if we are Christians in name only or as Jesus called them, hypocrites.
What is truly beautiful about New Year’s is that we can call upon the Lord to have our past covered by the blood.
Our sins are forgotten and we can hold our heads up high and walk forward with a clean slate. But we won’t make it very far unless we truly determine to commit ourselves to the way of Jesus Christ, being true disciples and imitators of the Lord.
Make today the time to be honest with yourself by confronting those habitual sins that are tripping you up from living for God and resolve to live well by his grace one day at a time.
