NEW BEGINNINGS

"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." - Revelation 21:5

As we depart from an old year and enter a new year, we are often filled with optimism. We want the new year to be better than the past year. We tend to look at January 1st as a new beginning and, for a calendar year, it is.

Do you need a new beginning? For some, New Year's resolutions reflect a desire for a new beginning. Many intend to loose weight. Some will try to get their finances under control. Others seek to break bad habits, such as smoking or overeating. A few wish to initiate good habits, such as exercising or improving relationships.

It is good to know that God provides new beginnings for people. Each new beginning is a gift from God. We don't deserve these gifts, but He freely gives them out of love for us.

Here are just three of the new beginnings that God offers people:

1. A NEW HEART

When a person comes to God through Jesus Christ, God changes the person at their very core, giving that person a new heart. The Bible says, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." The new believer is a new person as a result of God's work of grace. Paul wrote, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Too many people try to change themselves instead of coming to Christ and being made new by Him. Our efforts at self-reformation are limited, empty and vain. However, when God changes the heart of a person, true transformation occurs. Have you experienced this change yourself?

2. A NEW HOPE

Secondly, God give us new hope. Lamentations 3:22-23 states, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." Every morning, God's mercies and compassion are new for us. You see, you don't have to wait until January 1st to have a new beginning because each day is a new beginning. Yesterday is past. With the dawning of a new day, God gives you a new beginning.

3. A NEW HOME

Finally, God has prepared a new home for His children. One day, we'll receive a new body. Paul wrote, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." The great convention songwriter Luther Presley expressed it with this line from his famous song, "I'll have a new body, praise the Lord, I'll have a new life." When the Lord returns, we'll have more than a new body. We'll have a new home. In Revelation 21:1-5, John wrote, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." For the child of God, a new body and a new home awaits us.

When we bury a saint of God, we are tempted to think that his or her life is over. Not so. In fact, for that person, life has just begun. For the child of God, death is just a new beginning. In this life, a man considers it a new beginning when he moves from a deteriorating house to a new glamorous home. The same is true for a Christian at death. When he dies, he moves from a temporary, flawed tent to a new, eternal home.

Thank God for new beginnings!