Ready or not, here comes another new year. So many feel discouraged right out of the gate when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. Past failures to achieve well-intentioned goals or to establish new habits leave many wondering, why do I even try? Brothers and sisters, let’s be on our guard that this kind of thinking doesn’t make its way into our spiritual lives! As born-again believers, our sights and our hopes are not set on “new resolutions” but rather on “new creation.” 

What a difference there is between the two! Resolutions depend on us (on our own strength, resolve, and grit) to bring them about. New Creation is entirely opposite. It is God (through His power, with His resources) who is doing this “new thing.” My prayer is that God would fill us with hope as we continue to walk by faith into a New Year—confident that He who began a good (and new) work, will be faithful to bring it to completion. God is sitting at the Potter’s wheel, ready to get to work. I am confident of this: if we joyfully and boldly surrender ourselves to His hand, we can and will experience Renewal in the New Year.