A Fresh Start

We have experienced many setbacks and failures throughout our lives. Sometimes we allow these mistakes, these setbacks and failures to enslave us to the point that we never enjoy the full Christian life that God has given us to enjoy. We have a dead-end job and we feel stuck thinking, “I went into the wrong career and now there is nothing I can do about it.” We get married, only to find the marriage is a failure. It may end in divorce, or it may survive as a tragic, unending chain of arguments and fights. We say something to a friend, and then are ostracized from them for the rest of our lives. And yet, Christ said in John’s gospel: John 10:10 “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” The good news is that God says, “I want to do something new in your life. I want to give you a fresh start, a new beginning.” This news is a major element of our Christian faith – to start fresh and have a new beginning with God. At the beginning of a new year it is customary for us to think of this as a time of new beginnings, a time for new resolutions. But the truth is that with God anytime is a time for a new beginning. New beginnings come to those who step out in faith. To change anything in your life by the power of God takes faith. (Matt 9:29)