"Pursue the New" by Pastor Welty

2020 was a difficult year and we were ready for a new year.  But will tearing a page off a calendar really improve our situation?  We'll still be dealing with Covid-19 and all of its implications as well as a polarized country.

 Some of you are fans of the movie "The Princess Bride".  Beth sent me a meme about 2020 using a "Princess Bride" reference.  After Wesley was hooked up to "The Machine" in  "The Pit of Despair", Count Rugen said to him,  "I've just sucked one year of your life away" And Wesley responded:  "Please tell me it was 2020."

 2020 was a challenging year for all of us – more for some than others.  For most of us it was a year filled with some inconveniences such as wearing masks and social distancing.  But others faced some serious difficulties - illness, loss of income, loss of loved ones .

 In  Isaiah 43:18-19  God was promising to bring the people of  Israel out of Babylon. They had been exiled to Babylon, but God was promising to bring them home. He said:   “Forget the former things;   do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness  and streams in the wasteland.

 After what we’ve been through in 2020, We can hope that God will do a new thing in our world  in our external circumstances.  As vaccines for Covid 19 are being administered, we can hope that things in our world will improve. 

 But perhaps the new thing God wants to do for us is really about our internals. He wants to change us from the inside and give us a new heart

 The Prophet Ezekiel got more specific about the "new thing"  God intended to do  for His people when he said:  “‘ I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean;  I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.   And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."    (Ezekiel 36:24-27)

 God did change their external circumstances; he brought  them back to their homeland, but he planned to do more. He wanted to change their hearts and spirits from their rebellious propensities. He wanted to move them "to follow His decrees and be careful to keep His laws."

 Micah 6:8  gives a great summary of what God wants.   He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

 You may have made some New Year's resolutions and you might even be keeping them so far. Those resolutions often involve externals such as losing weight, exercising more, eating better. Maybe our resolutions also include plans to read God's word and pray more. Tangible things that we feel we can control.

 But maybe some other New Year's resolutions to consider are the less tangible things.  Things that are harder to control and require that we ask God for help Things like acting justly, loving mercy   and walking humbly with our God. Justice, mercy and humility are important attributes to aspire to.

 As we come into 2021 - let's trust God to help us experience the newness described in  2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,  the new creation has come:   The old has gone, the new is here!