Starting Over

One of the things that most people like about the beginning of a new year is that it seems like in many ways we have the opportunity to start over.  It is a new year, with a new calendar, and it gives us the impression that we have a reboot and get to begin afresh.  The diet has a new start.  The exercise regime has a new start.  The Bible reading plan has a new start.  All the resolutions we failed to keep last year have a new start.  Instead of being hopelessly behind or an abject failure, we get to start over.  And we tell ourselves that this year, things will be different.

Of course we don’t really get to start over just because a new year has begun.  If we gained twenty pounds last year, we can start a new diet, but we will be starting it twenty pounds heavier than we did the year before.  If we are in debt because of poor discipline in our spending habits, we can begin to live on a budget, but the debt does not immediately disappear.  In some ways, the idea of starting over with the beginning of a new year is something we just tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better.  But on the other hand, we can actually begin to make different choices, and live differently, not just every January first, but at any point in time.  We can’t undo the past, but we can begin to approach any and all aspects of life differently, and a new year is a great opportunity to do just that.

If we are to be successful in changing past behaviors though, we need to not disregard the past.  It is important for us to take a good look at how things were, and why they were like they were.  If we need to make a change, we need to know what went wrong, and why.  Why did I fail at last year’s diet?  Why am I still not in good physical shape?  What caused me to buy things I couldn’t afford?  Why was I not resolved enough to keep my resolutions?  In starting over, we don’t need to pretend that things will be automatically different.  We must look at the failures of the past and learn from them.  Those failures can be the building blocks for success this time, if we will take advantage of them by learning how and why we failed previously, so we will not do the same things again.

There is one other thing about starting over, and it applies to every day, not just January first.  God does truly let us start over.  When we give our lives to Jesus Christ, we are made to be new creations.  We truly have a new heart, a new life, a new beginning.  Furthermore, whenever we confess our sin to Him and turn away from our sin, God forgives us in such a complete way that it is as if we had never sinned.  He separates our sin from us as far as the east is from the west.  He cleanses us from all sin.  God allows us to truly start over with Him.  Our past actions may adversely impact our relationships with others, our health, our financial situation, and many other aspects of our lives, but not our relationship with God.  He forgives so completely and perfectly that we truly start over.  And because He is willing and able to help us change, or even change us, we can begin now to live differently.  We can be more disciplined, wiser in our decisions, more loving, more giving…… we can be different, redeemed, transformed.  Through Christ, God enables us to start over and be different.  And that can begin NOW.