I find, by experience, that, let me make resolutions, and do what I will, with never so many inventions, it is all nothing, and to no purpose at all, without the motions of the Spirit of God.
~ Jonathan Edwards
Kay and I decided in 2011 to start something new in 2012. Jenna and her friends are spurring us on. A new class. For teen girls.
Yesterday we looked at the classroom we’ll have. Um, think of your kitchen junk drawer, but room-sized.
The old needs to pass away so the new can come.
We pulled previous décor off the walls. We threw things in the trash. We made piles of bigger things to dispose of. (Anybody want some musty, mushy couches?)
A little bit of old was gone.
But what about the new? If new means different, can different mean recycled?
We needed a white board. We found an unused one in another classroom. Lamps? A room down the hall had one just waiting for us. Pictures? Jenna has several already that we can choose from.
Sometimes new comes straight from old.
The used-up converted to useful.
A regeneration of the exhausted.
What are you trashing from 2011? We all have some old that needs to pass away: bad habits, unwanted pounds, cluttered corners.
But what pieces can be redeemed? God is the master Redeemer. He can breathe new life into areas that you thought were dead.
Maybe a dream needs dusting off or a plan needs revamping or a relationship needs restoring. Now is the right time to hand it over to God.
He can do something with it.
Give him the old. He can make it new.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
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Did you make any New Year Resolutions? Renew any old ones?
