New Year, New You?

Is change among your resolutions?

While I don’t believe in or make New Year resolutions, I know many do. For a large part of the population, these often take the form of a “new you” in some way. Do you resolve to lose weight? Get in shape? Have a beach body by summer? Even have a new attitude? While there is nothing wrong with any of these, they require work of a nature that lead most to abandon their resolutions before the end of January.

What if I were to tell you that you could have a new you, but there would be no counting calories, avoiding foods, or stepping on a scale? What if I told you you could have a new heart? New spirit? New outlook? New life? You can, and getting started is very easy - all it takes…is faith.

God in the Old Testament promised the Israelites:

And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God. - Ezekiel 11:19-20

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. - Ezekiel 36:26-27

This was a description of the change God promised to bring about, so that they might draw near to Him and be His people, part of His kingdom.

Jesus explained to Nicodemus, one of the religious rulers of His time, the necessity for this change, when He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3 - some translations have “anew” in place of “again”). Nicodemus had difficulty comprehending, so Jesus continued:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

John 3:5-8

We cannot understand every aspect of it, nor are we expected to understand; just as Jesus did not expect Nicodemus (or us) to understand every aspect of the wind. That doesn’t negate the truth of Jesus’ statement. If we are to enter into God’s kingdom, we must be made anew by God. This is where many get the cart before the horse. So many believe they need to change themselves in order to enter the kingdom - this is incorrect. We simply need have faith, God will make the change in us, as He promised so long ago to those He saved from their slavery in Egypt.

And when God changes you, your whole life changes. When you have a new heart, a new spirit, you view everything in a new way. Your thinking changes: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

This renewal sets us right with God and gives us access to His presence:

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

Ephesians 2:13-16, emphasis mine

Becoming new is not about what you do, but what He has done. This new you sets aside the old and moves forward in a better way, a unified way:

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

Colossians 3:9-11

All you need to is receive Christ by faith. When the jailer asked Paul, “what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), Paul’s response was simple: “believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Change, and a desire to be different, will follow.

I am not going to give you any “special words” or some “sinner’s prayer” to say. All you need do is recognize your own insufficiency and talk to Him. He knows your heart (1 Samuel 16:7). He knows every word before it is on your lips (Psalm 139:4). All you need do is ask, and He will give you a new you, just as eventually, He will make all things new: “And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true’” (Revelation 21:5).

Will you start the New Year with a new you?

Happy New Year!