Today is the first day of the year 2023. We rightly refer to this as New Year’s Day. A New Year really means it’s a year that we have not had before. In the end, it means we will have 365 new days that will make up what we will ultimately call a New Year.
By the time 365 days have come upon us, the idea of the new year will give way to the idea of the coming new year. So, God gives us 365 New Days each year to live new lives in new ways. Since we cannot look back at yesterday to live it like new, we ought to look to today and tomorrow to decide what will be new about us.
In Ezekiel 36:26-27, God tells the people of Israel, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” That is what was new for them.
I typically end each of my messages by encouraging you to live a Delivered Life. This is what I mean by a Delivered Life. When we come to a saving faith in the Lord, He comes into our lives, He gives us a New Heart, and He puts His Spirit within us so that we can live more like He wants us to live. He delivers us from our old hearts and our old ways. He makes us new.
So, my encouragement is to live like you are a new person who has been delivered from your past way of living. Live a Delivered Life. As we start the first day of the year 2023, realize every day you live going forward should be a New You, living in a New Day. Wake up each day in some way with something amazing that is new about you.
After God did the work of creating creation, scripture says, “So the evening and the morning were the first day.” This was done seven times. To me this means we are given the period between the end of the day we are living till the beginning of our tomorrow to let something new happen within us. That is what is new.
God does not bring old things into a new day. He does not allow us to live in what we might call yester-tomorrow. Every day is a new day to Him. So everyday day should be a new day that we bring forth something new in our lives. Something old about us must die so that something new can come to life.
So, what is new about you? When the evening gives way to the morning of the day, why don’t you ask yourself, what did I allow to die so that I can be something new?
If you have a new heart, do you love like you never did before? To be new you will be a new love.
If you have a new Spirit, do you walk like you did before? To be new you will walk a different walk.
If you are a new creature, old things will pass away and all things you are and all things you face today and tomorrow will be new.
If you are saved from your old life, then you won’t live like you are still in bondage to that old life.
If you know more about Christ, you won’t think like you did yesterday.
If you are found by the Lord, you won’t continue to live like you are lost in yourself.
In every new day of the New Year, when you are awakened, a new you will walk differently, talk differently, dress differently, look differently, and live in ways that you have never done before.
Since today is the first day of 2023, start by committing to be something new and different each day of the year. And if you find yourself waking up each day the same person that you were the evening before, go back to bed for a bit. Wait for what’s new.
So, what’s new for you? Why don’t you ask the Lord to help you to wake up a new person in some way each day of your life for each new day that you are given.
Live A Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 