Have a “New” Year!

With each passing year, I am more grateful for the “newness of life” in Christ (Rom. 6:4). Though natural men may call me a senior citizen, as a spiritual man, I am actually getting newer, “being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).  The world says I am the sum total of everything I have ever done, including my failures (ugh!) But the Bible says "all things are new" (2 Cor. 5:17).  And it is the new that defines me, not the old.  My life is now being “summed up in Christ” (Eph. 1:10).

When God created the world He separated each day with the curtain of night. Yesterday is behind the curtain.  Regardless of yesterday's failure, today is a new start.  “His mercies are new every morning” (Lam. 3:23). That doesn’t mean I can’t learn from the past; it just means I am not going to live in the past and let it hold me back.  

Paul said, “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead” (Phil. 3:13-14).  How can you make this a “new” year? Leave yesterday behind; after all, you can’t change it. All of God's today’s are brand new.  Don't waste another day in bondage to the past. When Christ was buried, so was your past!  Enjoy your freedom.  Walk in the newness of life!

Can You Do Two Things at Once?

Unlike any other time in human history, people are multi-tasking. Hyper-automation makes it possible to do many things at once: you can simultaneously wash clothes, cook dinner, and water your lawn; and all of this as you drive to work talking on the phone. But there is something no one can do. No one can do two opposite things at once. For example, you cannot SIT and WALK at the same time.

Paul employs this self-evident ‘common sense’ approach to sanctification: he says you cannot walk by the Spirit and carry out the desire of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). It is impossible to walk by the Spirit and sin. It quite simple: either you are Spirit-led or flesh-driven—but you cannot be both at the same time.

What then is the secret to being able to “walk by the Spirit?” Oddly, the answer is “sitting.” While it is physically impossible to sit and walk at the same time, it is imperative in the spiritual realm. What does it mean to sit, i.e., Paul says we are “seated with Christ” (Eph 2:6)? ‘Sitting’ is a position of rest. When Christ finished his work He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2). It is your position of power and authority in Christ (the best seat in the house!) that empowers your walk. Paradoxically, then, we must remain seated while we are walking.

Think of a man who is handicapped and is confined to his wheel chair. Even though he is ‘sitting,’ he is also moving (walking). In fact, unless he remains seated in his chair, he cannot go anywhere (his chair empowers him). He both sits and walks at once. And so it is in the spiritual realm, unless you learn how to SIT and WALK at the same time, you really can't get anywhere.