Happy New Year Gas Street
Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV) –
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Happy New Year Gas Street! I’m going to go all out and say it….good riddance 2020, bring on 2021! Don’t get me wrong, there were some great things about 2020 but, on balance, it’s hard to give a year more than 4/10 when there’s a global pandemic going on.
In my family we have a lot of new year’s traditions. Some of them fairly normal: a slightly rowdy, out-of-tune chorus of “Auld Lang Syne”, others apparently less so: a musical number called “Roman Soldiers” which includes a choreographed dance about a legion losing its limbs verse by verse until it finally meets its demise. Don’t ask!
One of the most common new year’s traditions is the new year’s resolution. I don’t know whether you’ve made any. There’s nothing in the Bible about them. But the Bible does encourage us to look for the ‘new thing’ that God is doing.
In Isaiah God says to his people, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
God has made a new year’s resolution! Whoever you are, wherever you are, if you are in Christ, then God is doing a new thing in you in 2021. For someone who is easily bored, I find this really exciting news!
This week we’re going to unpack these two verses in Isaiah, line by line, and see what God might be saying to us through it.
Prayer – Father, thank you for everything that you did in 2020. Please bless us as we move into this new year.