Hope for the New Year

What if you could enter each day of the New Year filled with promise and hope? Would you resolve to do it?

According to a US News and World report (2023) the failure rate for New Years Resolutions is 80% with most people losing resolve and motivation within weeks of making the resolution. A YouGov poll said Americans top resolutions are for finances, physical and mental health, with the top resolution interest for 2024 being to save money. Only one third of the US adult population plan to make a resolution of set a goal for 2024. https://today.yougov.com

Have we given up on change?

How many of us truly want a change, and long for something to be different in ourselves and in our lives? How many of us truly believe we can be the agent of that change? How many of us believe that if left to our own devices, wisdom, power and strength we can make true lasting and beneficial changes in our lives? Could it be that those of us who will make resolutions for change will give up on those resolutions because we know to change will require something beyond ourselves? And those who will not make a resolution to change may just not believe they can change.

What if what we seek, and want to change could be done for us? And what if this wonderful change would not be up to us or depend solely on us to do? That sounds like an incredible win win situation, to have all I need that will make my life better and it is not left up to me to do it! What if Jesus was our New Years Resolution?

We have a God who is always at work doing something new and wanting to do something new in our lives. We have a God who wants the very best for us, a God who made us and knows us better than we know ourselves and is ready, willing and able to make these changes in us. A God whose resolutions for us will never fail.

In Isaiah 43:18-19 God tells us: Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. (NKJV)

In verse 18 God’s word to us begins by telling us not to dwell on the past. When we dwell on the past we can often become complacent about our lives and believe that things cannot change for us. Scripture tells us that in the past God did miracles and accomplished the supernatural in the lives of His people. We may think to ourselves that was then but what does it have to do with me now? God has not changed, so maybe it is us, maybe we have become complacent and in so doing have lost our hope and belief in change.

Verse 19 is packed with promise and hope. Promise and hope for us each day as we walk into the New Year in God’s plans for us. God’s words to us begin with Him saying, “I will do a new thing.” God is telling us and promising us that He will do a new thing. This can certainly move us out of a stuck past, if we believe it. We know that God’s word is good and it is faithful, and we can take it to heart and trust in it. We know our God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and if He tells us He is doing a new thing, it can bring us rest, peace and a sense of well-being in our lives. When it is our God, our all knowing and powerful God who is in control we can rest, and have hope and trust that our lives are in good hands.

As we read on God’s word says, “Now it shall spring forth.” So what and when is this new thing going to happen, to spring forth? It is going to happen now, and what is it? It is God in our lives and HIs power to effect the change we need. It is God’s presence with us, God in our lives. Our God who tells us He will work all for our good. (Romans 8:28).

God continues by saying, “shall you not know it?” Our God has promised to do a new thing in and for us, do we believe for a moment that He will not? Or can we expect miracles? Yes, we can expect miracles, we can expect undeniable changes in our lives for our good.

God does not stop here He goes on to say, “I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Roads in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, these are miracles. Our God is telling us He will bring miracles to our lives. Our God will do in us all we cannot do for ourselves. Our God will accomplish every needed change and resolution in our lives beyond anything we could ask for ourselves. When God is in charge of our lives, He will work all for our good, He will make our paths new. He will make a way for us to walk in and through our times of wilderness.

But what exactly is the wilderness in our lives? These are times that drive us to want something different, to know we need to make changes, these are the hard times we all will face. These are the times God uses to point us to realizing our need for Him. The Hebrew word for wilderness is midbar and the root of this word is devar which means “to speak or word.” In the wilderness is where God meets us and speaks with us.

Scripture shows us that who God calls to Him, He will bring to the wilderness. For example, Moses, David, Jacob, Elijah, Paul and Jesus all had wilderness experiences and as believers in Christ and God’s children we can add our names to that list. Our wilderness times may be times of pain and trial and hopelessness in the face of overwhelming circumstances, for example that of loss, illness or loneliness. Each of us is either currently experienceing some form of wilderness or we will. It is in our wilderness that we come to know our need for God and God shows us He will meet our need. It is in these times we learn our smallness and the bigness of our God, we learn humility and our need for our source, God. We learn faith, and experience our ability for endurance, as we trust God’s word to make a way through the wilderness, to make a change, to do a new thing in and for us.

While all people experience wilderness times, for the believer in Jesus these times can hold purpose and promise. The purpose being that our God is calling us closer to Him, to come and know HIm better, to learn we can trust in Him, and to know that while we may not understand the how or the why, our God is going to work a change in our lives, a change to benefit us.

Verses 18 and 19 of Isaiah are tucked in the middle of Isaiah chapter 43. Let’s expand our view of them by looking at the entire chapter. In the beginning verses 1-5 God is telling us I am the Lord who created you and formed you. He tells us do not be afraid. I have redeemed you, called you by name, you are mine. God tells us that whatever we will go through He will be with us, whatever we go through in this life will not overwhelm us or consume us, because we are precious in His eyes, honored and loved. And again God tells us to fear not for He is with us.

As we move to the middle of the chapter God is telling us that He has chosen us and in all He does we are His witnesses, that we may know HIm, believe in Him, that He alone is our Lord. All that He does is for us. God tells us He will make a way for us when we can not find a way in the wilderness and in the desert. When we cannot find a way we can and will find God.

As chapter 43 moves to a close God tells us what not to do. He tells us that despite all He has done and promises to do we have been weary of Him, we have not called to Him, we have not honored Him and instead we just continue in our old ways and sins. God tells us I am the one who blotted out all of your transgressions and will not remember your sins. God is calling to us to come to Him, to believe in Him, to use our hearts, eyes and ears to perceive all He is doing and wants to do for us, He is calling us to look ahead to all the new things of God. God is calling to us to expect not only new things and changes but to expect miracles.

But there is one thing that can hinder our change, our belief in God’s miracles and our receiving all God wants to do for and in us, and that is our unbelief. Let’s look at how unbelief effected God’s children while they were in the Judean wilderness as they left Egypt.

The physical wilderness encountered in the Bible and experienced by John the Baptist, David, Moses, Elijah, Jacob, Paul and Jesus was the Judean wilderness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQXEyF5_5DswildernessBiblequalities

To travel from Egypt to Israel one must pass through the Judean wilderness. This trip would normally take about 11 days, but for the children of Israel it took 40 years. It took 40 years because they continually struggled against and with their God. Despite all God did for them they doubted Him, they wanted to be in control, they wanted things their way, the way they thought life should go. Their unbelief caused them to be stuck in the wilderness for 40 years, rather than learn to trust their God who continued to lead them. God led His people in the desert wilderness for 40 years and as He did their clothes did not wear out nor did the sandals on their feet. In the middle of the desert wilderness, they did not starve or die from lack of shelter. (Deuteronomy 29:4-5) All we need to do is believe, to be willing to let God lead us, to fill us, and to help us perceive all He is doing, and give Him thanks. God is always making a new way for us through our lives, and through a world that at times can seem overwhelming and even without hope.

The only thing standing in our way of unrealized New Years resolutions of the miraculous kind is our unbelief. Will you choose to believe this year as your New Years resolution? Will you choose to believe in our God who says I will do a new thing, I will make a way for you in the wilderness and streams in the desert? Will you believe in Jesus as your New Years Resolution!!

The podcast for this blog episode can be listened to at https://www.buzzsprout.com/2114739/episodes/14219623-hope-for-the-new-year