Newness for Our Heart and Year
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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! – 2 Corinthians 5:17
As we inch our way towards 2026, we celebrate the coming of Christ to earth, living among us. He ushers in a new way of living, a kingdom mindset that sets the world upside-down.
As we reflect on this last year, the highs, the lows, and everything in between, we can often feel like there was more to be lived, more to be said and experienced. But as the year turns closer to the finish line of 2025, we hope for the capacity and time to focus more on what’s to come.
The calendar year will turn us into a new year, another revolution around the sun. Fresh starts, new beginnings. For me, this feels like I am able to be free, I can wipe the time clean and begin with blank pages. With God, the Creator of all things, I can be renewed and dream again.
In Christ, we get to begin again, every day.
What do you wish the New year would bring? Brighter hope? That relationship is finally be restored? Answers to prayers that have been suspended in wait?
We have good news: those who have put their life and faith in Jesus are granted a new beginning, a new creation in life and in our hearts.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
We can hope for a year full of His presence, His grace, and more opportunities to shine like Him into the world, because He is always at work, making a way, and shaping us into His image.
Bring your New Year’s hopes to God, the God of hope. His hope is anchoring and secure. Be prepared for patience with your hope; give it time to see how God comes through. This isn’t a quick New Year’s resolution, like going to the gym and sticking with it for a few weeks and then getting tired and slipping back into the old ways. This is lasting, and on His timeline.
God wants us to look ahead at where we are going with Him, not where we’ve been. Each day we have the chance to follow Him ahead into the unknown or slip back into our old ways of thinking and being. Each day He gives us new mercies and the choice to follow. There is a deeper revelation at play in our hearts and minds, rather than a resolution. Let’s begin this new year and live in Him with expectation for what the days ahead may bring.
Questions for Reflection:
1. How is Jesus making you a new creation?
2. Write out how you want to see God move in your heart and life this next year, and invite Him into your days.
