We rang in the new year with a question about new life. January 1st’s communion thought question was “In light of the New Year, how has God made us new?” with a scripture reference of 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Going back up to verse 14, it says Christs’s love controls us. Because He loves us, He died for us. Because we love Him, we submit our lives to Him and die to our own will. We live for Him and His purpose. We become a new person. Not changing the core of who we are, but finding our purpose in who He created us to be.
One thing we often forget to do is……forget. We worry about things that happened in the past that we can’t change. Or we spend too much time reminiscing on “how things used to be”. We need to live in the present and look ahead, striving to continue to grow in God and follow the path He has laid out for us.
In Philippians 3:12-14, Paul says he’s pressing on, forward. He is forgetting the past and looking ahead. If we keep looking back, either in longing or regret, we will miss out seeing the blessings God has placed in front of us.
When we decide to follow Christ, we become a new creature. We are reborn. We begin a new life, living for Him. Our old way of life is gone and we become Christ-centered, not me-centered. We don’t worry about what we used to do or how we used to be. We focus on loving and serving others, and letting Christ SHINE out of us. And we keep renewing ourselves daily to make sure we are still filled with His Spirit and with a humble servant’s heart. Every new year, every new day – every new minute – we receive His mercy and grace and have a chance to let Him breathe new life into us.
