The Hope of the New Year
December 31st, 2007 | by Ed |We’re on the verge of closing the book on 2007 and starting fresh in 2008. Each new year is a precious gift from God. Each new year is a new beginning, a fresh start, an opportunity to let go of our yesterdays and to begin again.
Can you think of some things from 2007–some regrets, hurts or failures–that you’d like to leave behind? Can you think of some things that you’re hoping to see happen in 2008?
There’s something about the beginning of the new year that fills us with renewed hope. New Year’s resolutions are not just resolutions–they’re confessions of hope! What is hope? Hope is the conviction that anyone at any moment can start a new future.
Hope reminds us that regrets are inevitable, but they don’t have to be final. Hope reminds us that we can’t change the past, but we don’t have to be imprisoned by the past.
We’re all on a journey–not so much from one place to another, but from the present to the future, a future over which we have no control. What keeps us moving forward is hope–hope in an all-powerful, all-loving and always faithful God who is relentlessly working out His purpose in our lives.
As you look forward to 2008, be encouraged by the words of the apostle Paul:
“I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me upward in Christ Jesus.”