A Really New Year:
 
I think it is Henry Ford that said:  Foolishness (Insanity) is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
 
Always with the beginning of a new year a lot of people want to change something. For some, it is to change an eating habit, for others it is to exercise more, or to spend more time with the family or to control an out of control spending habit. Whatever the changes are that we hope to accomplish, the reality is that nothing is really going to be different if we just continue to do exactly the same thing as we did before.
 
By just thinking or talking about all the changes we would like to see happen in our life will not make it occur, it is possible that only feelings of failure will be the outcome of it all. To get the desired effect of change, our input behavior needs to be a committed and different one from the ones that we have experienced in the past.
 
Change is not always easy and habits are not easily broken, but if there is one message in the Bible that includes all of us, it is the message that we can and must bring changes to the way we live and to bring our lifestyle more inline with what Christ's teachings require of us. In 2 Corinthians 5: 17 Paul confirms this with these words: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"  
 
So, maybe as we are stepping into this New Year it is a good time to change those things that we know are not in line with God's will  and to pursue this "new" that has to come into our lives. That anger issue, or the addiction problem, or the disrespectful behavior or whatever it is, can successfully be changed into something that reflects our new identity in Christ.
 
The sad thing is that many wait for these changes to just happen. We listen and wait. As if something or someone else will do it for us. The Biblical call is to make it happen by at least changing some behavior that can help bring these required lifestyle changes about. So let's try by setting our alarm clocks 5 minutes earlier to read the Word and pray before we start our day.  Let's come to the worship opportunities on Wednesdays, Sundays, Sunday School and other Bible Study opportunities to learn more from the Word and to receive additional encouragement to live out the changes that we are making. 
 

Ferdi Brits, Pastor