The new year offers us a time to reflect and to prepare a new approach for 2021.
While I was pastoring, I would pick a theme that would drive us for the year and then do a mini-series on it. I’ve also observed over the years that many leaders pick a word that speaks to how they want to approach the new year.
Given the abnormal year 2020 was, I figured it was appropriate to pick three words that describe my themes and approach to 2021.
“New”
I love the word new. Who doesn’t like new things? When I think about a new year, or a new day, I’m drawn to Lamentations 3:22–23:
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
If God’s compassions, or his mercies, are new every morning—what are they every year? If God breathes freshness into every day, I’m pretty sure he provides a fresh canvas for us every year.
For me, I always see each new year like a blank canvas.
Regardless of what did or did not happen the previous year, 2021 is a new year, with new possibilities, with new opportunities. When I think about new possibilities or opportunities, I’m reminded of Isaiah 43:19 where the prophet writes, “See, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Of course, God is talking about the new covenant he will initiate through the Savior. Nevertheless, I believe God is constantly working in us and through us to bring about something new.
If we are new creations in Christ, and if we are small windows for the world to peek through to see the new creation in which Jesus inaugurated and will one day consummate, then I’m constantly asking myself what new thing Jesus want to do in and through me and His church.
For ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
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