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This time of year, a lot gets made about “day one” of a new year. As Pastor Thomas rightfully said a few weeks ago, there is an optimism about a new year. There are goals, hopes, resolutions, and countless other commitments we make to ourselves, to our loved ones, and even to God about how we are going to start doing things differently.
Yet, as Solomon would remind us in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun; on “day one,” the same struggles, problems, insecurities, sins, and failures that were present in the prior year exist in the new year. Fifteen days into 2024, I am willing to bet things look pretty similar for you when compared to where you were in December of 2023.
Yet, I was reminded over this past week that part of the Christian life is remembering that in Christ, there is for us a “day one” start each and every day. In Christ, we are called to shift our focus from worldly thinking to God's perspective. Worldly thinking tends to bind us to the struggles, insecurities, and failures that persist from our past, but in Christ, we find freedom from those struggles, forgiveness for those failures, and confidence amid our weaknesses and insecurities. Paul tells the Corinthian church to be reminded that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation — the old has passed away, and the new has come. The love of God compels us to approach our lives and the people in our lives that way. In a new way. Not because our yesterday went so well, but because the mercies of God are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Day one is each day of the Christian life.
Yes, the same struggles exist; the challenges of life may persist, much like the ebb and flow of the sea, but with each sunrise, I pray we are reminded of the hope and promise of renewal in Christ every day. Each day is an opportunity to handle the struggles and challenges in that new way shown to us in Christ. Renewed by the love of God. This persistent renewal allows us to break free from the restraints of the world’s outlook and approach. In its place, we have been given the right to be called children of God, to live in the light of how God sees us each and every day.
Who knows how this Monday is going to go? Maybe this Monday will be a good one, maybe it will be a bad one, or maybe it’s just another manic Monday, but either way, the reality is the same. Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow is “day one” once more. So take it to God, spend time with Him this day, and then go out and live today and each day in the joy of that life which allows sinful people to be compelled by the love of Christ — in other words — back at day one.
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