While we are always cognizant of the new year, we are not so often aware of our own newness in Jesus Christ. Our God is the Father of new beginnings: Passover begins a new spiritual year. Rosh Hashanah marks the new civil year. Hanukkah is a time of rededication.
The prophet Jeremiah declared in Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV): “Through the LORD'S mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
In the Lord, each day, each moment is a chance for a new beginning and an abundant life. John 10:10 (NKJV) “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Being reborn by accepting Jesus as both our Savior and our Lord, we have access to life abundantly. It is never too late to step into that abundant new life.
In our born-again experience, we actually become new creations. Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Each day we can walk in that newness. Romans 6:3-4 (NKJV) “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Paul gave both the Galatians and the entire Church advice in walking in newness. Galatians 5:16-17 (NKJV): “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
In Romans 8:14-15 we learn that when we walk according to the Holy Spirit, we become sons of God. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
“Abba” is the Hebrew word for “Papa.” The word embraces more that a legal relationship. Abba connotes an emotional and spiritual tie. A few years ago, I was sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Jerusalem. A group of orthodox Jewish men were mingling in the lobby as well. They were dressed in the traditional garb of black suits, white shirts, and black hats. A small boy of 3 or 4 was dressed similarly.
Suddenly he broke from the group, ran toward a young man who had just come through the door. He called “Abba, Abba, Abba” as he threw himself in the arms of his father. His abba picked him up, held him close and kissed him all over his face while the little one giggled with delight.
That is the Abba relationship. It is the relationship that God wants with each of us. That relationship brings newness of life.
Romans 8:16-17 continues: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
Paul confirms what David wrote: Psalm 16:5-6 (NKJV): “O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance.”
As a new creation, I am a child of God and I have a good inheritance in Him. That inheritance is manifested in the fruit of the Spirit: “Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV): “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Love is foundational to all the other gifts and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:37-39 (NKJV): “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When we digest the truth of our newness, when we abide in an Abba relationship with our God, when we know that we are loved unconditionally by the One Who is Love, no matter the circumstances in our lives, we will have a joyous new year.
Everything God touches becomes new. Let’s allow Abba to touch our lives even more deeply in this new year.
May this new year find your heart filled to overflowing with the Abba love that our God desires to shower upon us.
May the ashes of the past be changed to beauty. May your years of mourning be exchanged for the oil of joy. May your spirit of heaviness be replaced with a garment of praise. May you be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.
(Isaiah 61:3)
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