A week ago, we kicked off a new year. Coming off the joy and celebration of a holiday season starting with Thanksgiving, we have a month of celebrations, decorations, and special little treats. We can end December with so much optimism for what is to come. We can reach January first thinking 2025 is going to be my year! And then January starts to January. Lights come down. Trees come down. All those things you “pushed off to the new year” come back and hit you all at once.
It’s easy to get discouraged. Your celebratory-self made some pretty lofty goals on New Year’s Eve. And a week in, it’s easy to think, “we gave it a good try but 2025 isn’t the one. We’ll see how things go in 2026.” But one thing God has shown us, and told us repeatedly, is that until the day we stop breathing we have another opportunity to start fresh.
Whether it’s a New Year’s resolution or just a habit you want to change, you have the chance to start fresh right now. Even when it feels like three-steps forward and two-steps back, don’t give up on moving forward. God will always provide a way for us to find the path again. Nothing can separate us from that love. The only way we lose is by giving up.
Isaiah 43:16-19
16 Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings forth chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18 “Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
What new things are you allowing God to do in your life? Are you looking for God to make rivers in the desert?