It's Time for a Change!
Updated: Mar 1, 2021
I have to confess that I have made news year’s resolutions for years just to watch them go right into new year’s irresolution’s. So, I can’t confidently say that this year will be any different, but if I don’t try, then I am giving up on hope, and that is one thing I won’t do. This past year has been hard on all of us, with our hopes going up and then crashing down. But it is a new year, and we all need to increase our expectations for bright new beginnings. Matthew 9:17 reminds us that “no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
If we are going to become those new wineskins, we had better get ready. Make plans, and make resolutions to move out the old and bring in the new. First, we have to ask ourselves what is the old that we need to eliminate? And what is it that keeps us from throwing out those old habits. Two of the reasons I have trouble doing that are stubbornly holding on to old ideas, and the fear of change. Do they sound familiar to you?
When we hold on to ideas, like I can never lose weight, or I just don’t know where I will find the time to read my Bible. These old ideas keep us from taking action. But it’s the fear of change that really holds us in place. We think “what if I don’t like who I become?” “What if I can't keep it up?” If we have put our faith in Jesus and believe that He came to redeem us, we all so have to believe in the words of promise that He gave us in Revelations 21:5 “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
When people look at these two verses together, they can make us confused. With the first one we think if you are going to keep your wine (or new life) in an old wineskin (our bodies) it will not work. How can I a flawed and sinful person ever hold new wine? I might as well stay the way I am and not worry about changing. But when we add in the second verse, we see that Jesus meant that He would make us new right now. We don’t have to wait for those new redeemed bodies in heaven, but we can be made clean and new right now! Right now, we can change, we are being changed a little each day. Maybe for some of us a big change came right away. Then it slowed down, and now it feels like an uphill climb. Either way we can lean on the promise that these words are trustworthy and true.
When we owned a business, my husband and I would make plans for the future, we would play the game what would we change if we knew we would not fail. So, with the knowledge and promise that Jesus has given us, we can confidently make New Year’s resolutions, because even if it takes awhile for us to see a difference, we can trust that change will come. Have trust in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Dream, make lists, have faith, and live like you know you won’t fail. Do what Jesus said and write down these promises right at the top of your list of resolutions and get ready for something new in 2021!