2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

NYR, New Year’s resolutions, a fresh start, a do over of sorts, but more than that, a new mind set. After all a NYR is nothing more than a mental exercise of resolve to make changes.

First one has to recognize there is a need for change. That is still a matter of self-determination, it is after all your resolve. What if you are wrong about what needs to change? How will you know?

I began this devotional today wanting to lead off with this opening verse. I went to my on live bible, Biblegateway, and low and behold the verse of the day was 2 Corinthians 5:17. I did not have to type the address in the search box. Coincidence? Not in my experience.

As I pondered what to write the issue of all things become new came into focus. Really, all things? I have the same body as before. I have the same memories as before. At the instant of conversion I even had the same faults as before. What is the true meaning of all things if many things in my life did not change?

Here once again we are stuck in the mindset of self-determination. We want to see change and in that moment of conversion we miss the true meaning of all things. We miss it because we have not yet learned how to look at things from God’s point of view.

Our pastor likes to define justification in the simplest of terms, “Just as if we never did it.” Now we know we did it, we know we are guilty, but from God’s point of view, as He sees it, in His determination, it never happened.

To truly understand “all things” you have to see it through God’s point of view.

Genesis 1:3-5 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

NYE, New Year’s Eve, is there a better time than now to talk about beginnings? While many of you will not see the opening verses of the bible to be the original source of New Year’s resolutions allow me to point out a thing or two.

Tomorrow with be the first day of the New Year. There is a point of demarcation, the counting down of an end of time, a running out of time.

God separate the Light from the Darkness, night and day. Note that the evening or darkness is called out first, as if moving from darkness to light is the natural order of things. What is a New Year’s resolution if it is not a resolve to do better and cast off the mistakes of the past?

In this we resolve by force of will to change. Once of the noted anticipations of New Year’s resolutions is the failure in human resolve. It is inevitable as being human, we cannot help ourselves.

Now allow me to point out my last point and I believe it is the most important one to begin this next year. God said, “Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.^”

God said, God saw and separated. There was no human resolve of will in moving from darkness into light. We somehow forget that and hope with no history of performance that sheer will is enough to change us. 

“With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” Matthew, Mark, and Luke agree.

 You are running out of time.