Earlier today on Bellshill Salvation Army Band’s Facebook page I shared some devotions. I’d like to share those devotions with you tonight.
In this new year it’s a time when some will make new year resolutions, or set ourselves achievable targets to make a fresh start in particular aspects of our lives. Our Christian lives should be no different. So just as God uses the seasons in nature to remind us of his desire to continually make us new, we should use this new year to renew or freshen-up our relationship with God.
God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
Lamentations 3:22-24 (The Message)
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
He’s all I’ve got left.
We have hope for today and for the future because of God’s unfailing love for us. His love is available to each of us, so that he can free us from that whatever trials or challenges weigh on our hearts.
At the start of this year, we again need to take time to consider the things that distracted us from God in the last year: What has taken our attention away from God? What has played on our emotions? What hurts or disappointments need to be healed?
Whatever things you have identified that have held your relationship with God back last year, God is ready now to meet you at your greatest point of weakness and surround you in his love. He longs for you to know that He is with you, and will walk with you every day, because “His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning”.
Just as in nature, tree needs rain, sunlight and warmth to grow each year, so we need to be refreshed by God’s grace and love to be made new. Therefore, at the start of this new year, I encourage you to take all your worries, anxieties and hurts to Him, and find that new beginning which God has made freely available to you when you open your heart to Him.
God has new beginnings in store for you. Just as a tree needs fresh sunlight, warmth, and rain to bear fruit again, you need the refreshing rain of God’s grace and the warmth of his unfailing love to be made new. I therefore encourage you to start your new beginning by opening up your heart to God today, so that you can receive and receive the newness of life that He can give.
The Distinct Dot 