NEW YEAR! Beginning Again!

It's a new year, starting all over with new plans; moving the furniture; beginning the weight loss program. Stopping the smoking habits along with excessive drinking, or what's even better, is stopping them altogether. We make our lists of do's and don'ts and set back with a sigh; we are on our way for sure, this time. The important thing about beginning again is that we can; begin again!

Jim, Jennifer and I have been on a weight loss program since the end of last June. We have lost weight and through the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and even new Years Eve we have maintained because we know that we are still on our weight loss program and each morning after celebrating, we just begin again. We have learned a plan and we are working the plan. It is not for a time but for the rest of our life time. Beginning again is the key! This being the first week of the new year, marks the beginning of the first week of the rest of our life in 2010.

Think about the times you have failed and felt discouraged. I know you have probably heard that old cliche'; "Dust yourself off, pick yourself up and start all over again!" I know that I have said this to many of the youth in our youth groups years past, which at the time didn't mean anything to them. But I believe today each one of them knows exactly what it means. How many times have we had to do just that, start all over again!

Remember the story of the Israelites being taken captive? The false prophets had assured them they wouldn't be held captive for long but Jeremiah told them they would be in Babylon for a long time. He said go ahead and build houses, marry, raise families and pray for the well being of the land in which you now live. He went on to say that discouragement might lead them to think they would never leave Babylon because it would be a long, long time. However Jeremiah said; "For thus says the Lord; when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you; says the Lord and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you,
says the Lord, I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you." Jeremiah 29:10-14

God was talking to the Israelites through Jeremiah then. He was not telling us that he was going to take us from here and set us up there. He was not saying that no matter where you are headed I will lead you here. God was saying to us that his plan is for us to be happy and to have a future of hope within our life with Him. One way to do that is to seek His face because He has promised when we do, we will find Him. When we stray from the path, we can seek God with all our heart and find Him waiting. We can begin again! We can only be restored by repenting and renewing our walk of unending faith through our Savior.

Israel's exile was brought about because of sin. Our failures are brought about because of sin. When sin is forsaken, gotten rid of, and we ask God's forgiveness; His purposes in mercy are then given. Forgiveness, gives us the avenue of 'beginning again.' Let's start this new year of new beginnings by getting on our knees. Let's begin today as a clean slate before our God! "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

Beginning again helps us to understand that God declares sinners righteous, not because they are intrinsically righteous or have anything righteous in themselves, but simply because of their faith through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. By Jane Ann Crenshaw 12/26/09