Some make a big deal out of the beginning of a new year. People make New Year's resolutions, determine to make this year "better" than last, bid a glad farewell to the past and welcome an undoubtedly more prosperous future.
Here is reality: A new calendar doesn't change a thing. Sure, I wrote a couple days ago about this being a good time (the time) to get started doing what needs to be done, and I believe that is true. But that is the only way this week will be any different from last--if we make it different. If you think you woke up Sunday morning and everything was new and fresh, you're wrong.
I don't mean to drag you down, but what makes you think this year is going to do anything but pick up where last year left off? Most of us woke up Sunday with the same jobs, responsibilities, problems, circumstances, and resources we went to bed with Saturday. Our actions will have the same consequences they have always had. We have the same strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and past failures. We live in the same world we always have.
In short, as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:9, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."
It's a new year, but everything looks and feels suspiciously the same to me.
The world isn't going to change on it's own.
Here's what I'm getting at: We have an opportunity to change with this new year, but it is no more than that. If we do the same things this year as last, and expect different results, we're going to be mightily disappointed. A new year does not a new world make.
I must say here that I understand all things are in God's hands. He is sovereign. What happens happens because He causes it or allows it. Within the framework of God's sovereignty, however, is the matter of our freewill, and that, my friends, is how we can affect change in our lives.
If you want change, then change. Do you want to be closer to God? Get closer to Him. Do something about it. Do you want closer relationships? Then grow closer to people. Want satisfaction in life? Find out what God wants you to do, then do it. Want to know what God wants you to do? Ask Him. Pray. Read His Word. Seek Him.
If you're not going to change, then it's going to be difficult to distinguish this year from last. The world will not change for us. God isn't going to change for us. God can change us, but only if we're willing to be changed. If we want change in the world, we have to be willing to cause and allow change in ourselves. Otherwise, to quote Solomon again, we're just chasing the wind.
Here's the conclusion.
After all his ruminations about nothing in this world being worthwhile, Solomon came to this conclusion at the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes: Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Solomon realized, after a lot of failures, that doing anything other than serving God was simply folly and foolishness--chasing the wind. Seeking knowledge for knowledge's sake, seeking pleasure for pleasure's sake, and even working for work's sake will not accomplish the change we seek. Change, real change, comes from seeking and serving God and His Son Jesus Christ.
Want change in your life? Make this your New Year's resolution: Seek God.
You just might be surprised to wake up one morning and realize that you, and the world, have been made new again after all.
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