All Things New

 New diet plan. New exercise goals. New Bible reading/study habits. New (you fill in the blank). New Year's Day marks a new beginning. According to an article by Dr. Saad in Psychology Today: "Most people fail to keep their New Year's resolutions - 22 percent after one week; 40 percent after one month; 50 percent after three months; 60 percent after six months; and 81 percent after 24 months.
I would fall into that 22 percent after one week category! I just don't do well with resolutions! I'm so thankful that I live under the new covenant and have a Savior who wiped my slate clean a couple thousand years ago! Because, I would NOT have survived in Old Testament days!
When I trusted Christ as Savior, everything about me was made new. I am no longer bound to a list of hundreds of laws I can't keep! In the gospels (while people were still under the law), Jesus declared the "new" law that He would bring at His death:

Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. - John 13:32-35 (NASB)

 Whew! That's alot easier than keeping the Sabbath! Jesus Christ has given me new life (Rom. 6:4), a new spirit (Rom. 7:6) and a new law! He has made all things new!

Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. -2 Corinthians 5:16-21

I don't know about you, but I just breathed a big sigh of relief! How often I forget that I've already had an extreme makeover! I don't have to do ANYTHING!  He has made me righteous. I've never been great at keeping New Year's resolutions anyway, so this year, instead of trying to keep a checklist of actions that make me a "better" person, I'm resolving to walk in the Spirit so that I might "...love the Lord my God with all my heart and my neighbor as myself" (Luke 10:27)! I'm off the hook! He has made all things new!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


Some great new reads for 2012 you should definitely get your hands on: