Topic: NEW YEAR, NEW YOU? – Right From The Heart Daily Devotional by Bryant Wright Ministry 1 January 2021
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“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17
January 1, 2021
2021. It’s the start of another new year. The old has gone (goodbye, 2020!) and the new year is here – ready or not! Can you believe it?
Like many this time of year, there’s a lot of dreaming, planning, and looking ahead. If we’re honest, most of us can recognize a few character traits or habits that we’d like to leave back in 2020. Some of us will even go so far as to attempt to modify or change things this year. And it might work – for a while. But simply changing our outward behavior is like rolling back the odometer on a car. You reduce the numbers from 200,000 to 20,000, but you still have a car with 200,000 miles on it.
When it comes to experiencing true, lasting change, we need to go deep. Thankfully, there is hope for those of us who sincerely want to change; and it all starts with surrender. Now, I know this is completely counter-intuitive. After all, every motivational speech begins with encouraging some form of a decisive act of will. Think Nike: ‘Just Do It!’ But Jesus tells us something different. The power to truly change begins with admitting that we can’t do it alone and asking for God’s help. Why? Because lasting change comes from within and only God can truly transform us from the inside out.
The Bible says that if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation; the old is gone and new has come. In other words, when we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, we are completely transformed – changed from the inside out. So, instead of changing a few habits or polishing our outward appearance while remaining the same old person inside, Jesus offers us a spiritual heart transplant.
Are you looking for a fresh start, a new direction, or a total life change in 2021? Leave the old behind and step into the new as you walk with Jesus. Give Jesus control of your life and follow Him in faith. That, my friends, will be a change for the better. It will be a change that lasts.