Something New
“From time to time, I like you to hear from people who have deeply impacted my life. This week, it is Kim Pickard Dudley who is a friend like no other. Her passion for Christ is relentless and her heart is immaculate. I hope that you will be encouraged and even comforted by her insight this week.”
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
HAPPY NEW DECADE!!
Don’t you just love ringing in the new year?!
It sure does seem to be the one time of the year when most everyone at a minimum reflects upon what they could do differently or better ... or perhaps they go all out ... and set some really ambitious goals (or resolutions, as we like to call them) for themselves.
It’s dreamy to think about a fresh start ... to begin eating healthier and getting in better shape. To begin taking control of our finances, getting more organized and oh yes ... becoming better listeners, right?
But for this New Year ... what would it be like to do something ... well ... new?!
The very nature of new ALMOST ANYTHING ... invigorates us, doesn’t it?
It adds a bounce in our step.
For example, remember when you were a kid, and you got your new outfit for the first day of school? There was something about wearing that new outfit that made you feel BIGGER.
And tell me when you wear a new pair of sneakers for the first time ... you don’t run just a little bit FASTER?!
And what about that new book ... that has never before been opened ... doesn’t your heart pound a little faster at the prospect of diving into it?
And that new friendship? Or new hobby? That new marriage? Bubbly and exciting, right?
We all tend to be creatures of habit and mostly resistant to change and new things. However, we do savor certain changes and new things ... generally when they make us more hopeful. Expectant. And alive.
So for this new year ... how about instead of setting the same resolutions that we’ve set for the past 10, 20, 30-plus years ... what if we were to partner with God and get creative?
What if we were to get adventurous ... and sought the Lord for His ideas of new in our lives? Matthew 7:7 says “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
What if we did that?
“Lord, I’m asking, seeking and knocking at your door.”
“Lord, what do You have that’s new for me?”
Isaiah 43:19 says: “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” God is most definitely in the business of refreshing our lives! Of doing things anew in us!
Friends, our journeys as believers in Jesus are just that ... journeys.
Webster’s defines journey as: “an act of traveling from one place to another.”
Staying hopeful, expectant and alive requires us to TRAVEL from our current, comfortable location. To MOVE from one place to another. To DO different things. To VENTURE out in faith. To GROW as we learn from our life experiences.
Staying hopeful, expectant and alive requires us to say “yes” to new so that God can use us for purposes of His glory.
Of course the enemy would love to steal this opportunity from us. And from God.
Two ways in which the enemy keeps us from moving into new are: (1) being fearful (maybe of failing), and (2) being mired in a season of deep disappointment. In either case, the fear or disappointment causes us to become spiritually paralyzed. Just stuck.
The good news, however, is that God (1) is greater than fear and disappointment (I John 4:4), and (2) can make a way where there seems to be no way (Isa 43:19).
God can make a way for us through anything; He’s moved mountains! He’s parted seas! He’s conquered giants!
He’ll see us through.
So what about it, my friend? Could this be your time? Your year? To skip past the routine New Year’s resolutions and ask God what He has new for you? YES, my friend!
It is your time! Your year!
What God-size dreams are buried deep in your heart? Perhaps ones that only once-in-a-decade you’d have the courage or inclination to dust off? And go for?
Are you ready to step into a deeper level of your destiny?
Has your fear of failing or not following through held you back to date? Let me just say ... God’s not afraid!
Phillipians 1:6 says that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” HE’LL DO THE WORK in and through you! ALL OF IT!
His follow-through record is 100%!
So will you say “yes” to His new in your life today?
Will you ask Him how to get started? James 1:5 tells us that “if you ask for wisdom, God will give it generously without finding fault.”
Wisdom. Check.
And then, will you take just one step in the direction of advancing the dreams that God has placed in your heart?
Will you do it today?
And for those of you who are mired in deep disappointment ... Could this be your time? Your year?
To let go? To surrender the disappointment(s) ... that have, in either small or immeasurable ways, rocked your world? That have you stuck?
YES, my friend!
It is your time! Your year!
It’s your time to begin moving forward by asking God what He has new and in store for you now? It’s time for that new once-in-a-decade rebounce in your step.
It’s time to embrace your reality and launch into what He has for you.
It’s time to acknowledge God’s incredible FAITHFULNESS!
I love the song lyrics, “All my life You have been faithful; All my life You have been so, so good.”
Bury these words deep in your heart and make them your new default message to yourself.
Do it!
Today!
My friends, as followers of Jesus, there is so much room for fullness of joy and reinvention of our lives! At any age and at any stage of our lives.
New adventures in Him are at our fingertips.
So for this new year ... for this new decade ... go ahead ... set out to lose some weight and get exercising! And yes ... get your finances in order, get more organized ... and by all means, become a better listener!
Do these things.
But I challenge you as well ... to do something ... new!
Something!
Remember being BIGGER on your first day of school wearing that new outfit?
And how you ran FASTER with your new sneakers?
Imagine taking a new step towards what God has for you.
Is it finding a new job? Starting a business? Is it following your dream of always wanting to be a missionary?
Is it a new attitude? Is it shaking off your mindset of despair over a life you had hoped for in exchange for trusting Him with the life you have been given?
Either way ... I’m rooting for you!
Now GO ... and have a HAPPY “Really New” YEAR!!