Do not go into the New Year carrying baggage from the old year
Exodus 12:2 says this. “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Sometimes we can have the start of a thing but there is no end to a previous thing. We can start a fire when there was no fire before. But then there are times when something new happens because something old ends. This is the way the Lord wants us to view our lives, especially with Him.
The beginning of the year means the end of the current year. The Lord does not expect us to show up at the beginning of the year with our luggage full of the things we used and needed for the year before. The New Year is a new year. Many of us find it difficult to enjoy what is new because we keep trying to relive our old ways in the old year again and again.
In fact, most people find that things never change for them because they will not stop trying to live like they did yesterday. You may put a new car in your old garage, but you do not drive a new car like you drove the old car. They are not the same.
So, the first day of the New Year 2025 is upon us. And like times of old, the Lord wants to remind us that this will be the first day of the first month of the year. Exodus 12:2 was the time of the first Passover. God was saying to the Israelites, tomorrow you will start a new life in a new way. You must leave this old life behind you. You cannot take your life in Egypt with you into your New Life.
He wanted them to know that the way you enter the New Year will determine the way you live each day of the new year. That was a great revelation then and it is a great revelation for us now. Sometimes we cannot enjoy the new because we will not let go of the old.
Jesus said something similar when He said you do not put new wine into old wine skins. He was saying if you put new great tasting wine into an old wine container the new wine will take on some of the taste of the old wine still caught in the old wine skin. You ruin the new wine that way.
So, as we look to the New Year let us encourage ourselves to make sure we are leaving the remnants of our old lives behind.
It is hard to have a joyful life if you hang onto your old sad life. It’s hard to have a satisfied life when you won’t leave a gluttonous life behind. It is hard to have a life of peace when you will not leave a life of fighting and anger behind. It is hard to have a life of quiet when you leave an open mouth behind you.
In life there is a principle of addition and subtraction. I find that people cannot enjoy more success or better things because they always want to add something great to their lives while keeping everything else about their lives the same.
Sometimes you must subtract bad habits from your life before you can add better habits to your life. The New Year is an opportunity for you to enter something new because you leave something old. It is an opportunity to subtract some of your old ways so that you can enjoy the better ways God has planned for you in the New Year.
Psalm 31 is a simple Psalm of Trust in the Lord. It says “Lord my heart is not proud. Nor are my eyes set on lofty things. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me. Surely, I have calmed and quieted my soul. Like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. Hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever.”
As you start the New Year. Start it in humility of life. Don’t look forward to high and lofty things but look for something new. Do not be too concerned with the things that were great last year but focus on being as great in the New Year as you can be. Last year things may have gotten you excited but go into the New Year with a quiet soul, controlling what you can control and leaving all else to the Lord.
Hope in the Lord for a great year. That is most all you need. And remember the Israelites. The first month of their New Year came when God had delivered them from their bondage in Egypt. Like that, learn to leave the bondage of your life last year behind and live like the Lord has delivered you to a new life in a new year.
Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 