A new year offers a new beginning, the chance to start fresh. There’s a reason January is the most important month of the year for gyms and diet programs, because it seems like a fresh chance to start again, to improve yourself. It seems like a natural time for beginning something, which is why lots of people make New Year’s resolutions (whether they stick to them or not is another story!).
The Christian life offers lots of opportunities for fresh starts, for changing what we’ve been doing or beginning to live differently. Do you ever go to God on purpose for a time of confession? We are Baptists, so we don’t confess to a priest, but we should have regular times where we admit to God what we’ve done wrong. We admit to God that our lives are not perfect, that we’re not living the way we ought to live, that we’re doing things we ought not do and we are failing to do things we ought to do.
Because of God’s forgiveness and because God loves us, we can ask God for forgiveness, and then get a fresh start. Psalm 103:12-13 says:
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.”
Additionally, 1 John 1:9 reminds us:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
God wipes our slate clean. We don’t need to carry the weight of our sins or guilt with us anymore. We are forgiven! We can go to God anytime for forgiveness and we should! Our confession to God should be daily, not a resolution at the beginning of each year. Why? Because we sin daily!
Daily time with the Lord is necessary because it doesn’t take long for us to forget about what God has done for us. We take the burden Jesus has taken from us and we pick it back up and start trying to carry the weight of our own sins again. But God never gets tired of forgiving us!
The great theologian Martin Luther said, “In the morning, as soon as you get out of bed, you are to make the sign of the holy cross and say: ‘God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit watch over me. Amen.’ Then, kneeling or standing, say the Apostle’s Creed and the Lord’s Prayer…After singing a hymn, or whatever else may serve your devotion, you are to go to your work joyfully.”
Now, I am not one for creating a robotic ritual…. I would just say that you need to spend time with God daily, and during that time, confess your sins and ask God for forgiveness.
You don’t have to wait for a new year to have a fresh start. Each day offers the opportunity to wake up and remember that you are a child of God. You have been claimed, redeemed, and set free by Jesus. Let us seek to give joyful thanks to God that His mercies are new each morning.
I pray that each of us would grow closer to God every day of this new year!
It is good to be your pastor!
In The Lord’s service till the last fish is caught, <><
Pastor Chris
