In the past week, I wonder how many times we have said the words Happy New Year! Some people, while politely smiling and nodding, may be secretly dreading the year to come. Many people don’t believe that happy, is going to be the word that will define the year 2020. If you find yourself in that place, be encouraged. No year need be defined by a faulty belief system, an emotion, a circumstance, or the people around us. As a Christian, Christ alone defines us and gives us our identity. He is the rock on which we stand, and His Word is the foundation on which base our beliefs to daily live our lives.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
When you and I accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we were made into a completely different being – a new creation that never existed on planet earth before Christ’s death and resurrection. This truth will never change because it is based on God’s unchanging Word. We may not feel changed, we may not always act changed, we may not even believe that we have changed, but if we have truly surrendered our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we are a different creation – God now indwells us!
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthains 3:16 (ESV)
Imagine, the God of all creation chooses to make His home inside of you and me. Why? So that we can now fulfill our purpose revealed in Genesis 1:26-28. Being made in His image, we are to show the people we meet, family, friends, neighbours, co-workers, strangers etc. what God is really like. We are to respond to them in the same way God responds to us.
We have often heard, seeing is believing, but as Christians, we are to train ourselves to believe in order to see. If we live from God’s perspective, we understand that we are never alone (Hebrews 13:5). We always have someone who loves us perfectly (Romans 8:38-39) as well as someone to help and guide us (John 14:16). We are significant (Romans 8:17). We have been and will always be wanted (1 John 3:1). When we know and believe God’s truth, we are able to stop living for ourselves and we are able delight in living our lives for Christ alone.
Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
Isaiah 43:18-19 (MSG)
In 2020, let’s choose to take God at His Word. Let us purpose to live like we believe that what He has said is true. Let us open our eyes to the wonder of what our God wants to do in and through us, so that His Kingdom would come here on earth as it is in heaven.