Everyone Needs a New Start
The coming of a new year is always refreshing. It gives us moment to pause and celebrate a year past while looking forward to the promise of the year that is to come. Making a fresh start allows us to live into the HOPE placed in us from this Christmas season. Our world was in darkness, but now with the birth of the Christ Child, a bright light has shown into our world creating a new day.
Winter is the end of a season. The leaves fallen from the trees begin their decay on the ground. The decaying lives refurbish the earth with fresh nutrients. The enriched ground gives promise of a season that will come. The sap in the trees has drained back to the roots and all is at rest as God uses this season to restore. It is good to rest. It is good to pause. It is good to abide as God does this restorative work in us and all creation. Soon the season will change and we will enter into a time of new life and growth.
Jesus has done this for our eternal soul. We were once in darkness and had no hope. Jesus provides for a fresh start. In the midst of our death, Christ brings life. We have a new life. This day we are building by abiding in Christ. We are storing up life for a fruitful season to come. This freshness and newness we feel comes from the restorative work that Jesus is working in us. Right now the excitement of things new and the refreshing entrance into a new year comes from what we know Christ has done and is doing in us.
When I was a teenager, my home church organized a youth choir. Our choir had a special outfit that we wore. The boys had a neck tie that matched the skirts that the girls wore. We would practice every Sunday afternoon. The songs from that choir still stick with me today. One of those songs was titled Everybody Ought to Know.
Everybody ought to know
Everybody ought to know
Everybody ought to know
Who Jesus is.
He’s the lily of the valley
He’s the brightest morning star
He’s the fairest of ten thousand
Everybody ought to know.
Everybody ought to know
Everybody ought to know
Everybody ought to know
Who Jesus is.
Songwriters: Harry Loes
Everybody Ought To Know lyrics © New Spring Publishing, Inc.
I liked the song because it incorporated a new song with some of the words from old hymns in the Cokesbury Hymnal that my church would sing. I thought about this song when writing this article. It reminds me of what is really important as we go into the New Year. A relationship with Jesus Christ is truly all we need. Matthew 6: 33 reminds us that seeking first the Kingdom of God we will discover that everything else will come. My excitement for a new year lives out of the refreshing that I have found in Christ. My prayer is that this same refreshing relationship will be in its fullness for you as well as we go into this NEW Year.
Happy New Year winning them to Jesus,
Gil Wise
If you would like to view past editions of A Moment with Gil, follow this link: https://beacondistrictnc.org/category/from-the-ds/