God Wants To Do a New Thing in Your Life

I’m writing this seed at the beginning of the New Year after re-reading the many messages in cards and letters which came with the Christmas post. For some friends the past year has been trouble free, while others have had hard times in ways they could not have anticipated a year ago. Whatever the past year has held, if we want to embrace the new thing God wants to do in our lives, we’ll have to take a long look back and come to terms with the past, then start looking ahead.

Our text for today was written to the children of Israel at a bleak time. They were in captivity in Babylon. They were looking back to their deliverance from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land generations ago. All their previous victories were doing nothing to set them free in the present. They needed God to do a new thing now. Like them, we can’t depend on past victories. For us, at the beginning of 2015, the question isn’t what’s God done? The question must be what’s God doing in my life right now, and what am I prepared to allow Him to do, in order for Him to fulfil His purposes in me and through me?

‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing’. We can never deserve to receive anything from God. Whatever the past, we’re told not to dwell on it, because we can’t change it. It can teach us, but it mustn’t bind us. Now, at the beginning of this year, we’re given the offer of a new opportunity to look forward. Our text asks ‘Do you not perceive it?’ Maybe God is asking each one of us if we want to open ourselves up to His new thing; asking us if we’re willing to embrace it. It’s God’s new thing, not ours. It might challenge us to move from the security of the past into the unknown, but when we move with God we’re safely anchored in His security.

As you’re reading this seed you may be facing circumstances so overwhelming that you can’t imagine how God can do a new thing. Maybe God wants to change you, do a new thing in you, rather than change the circumstances. In any event, He desires to show you something of Himself that will fill your heart with hope and confidence to know that He’s in the process of doing a new thing. Hear Him say, “I won’t pass you by. I want to do a new thing in your world, a new thing in you and a new thing for you.”

We’re not promised an easy passage. The desert is a dry place and the wilderness is barren. In those circumstances we’re promised the divine presence of the One who never breaks a promise. He never changes and He never fails. So today, why not draw near to God and invite Him to do a new thing in you. You can’t make it happen, so don’t try. Choose to live this day and all your days in obedience to Him. This is a sure sign that you love Him and you abide in His love.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for Your unfailing promises. I come before You with the past I can’t change. I look to the future in anticipation of the new thing You desire to do in me, for me and through me, as I walk in obedience to You. Please do a new thing in me and change me to be increasingly like Jesus. I ask it for His glory. Amen.