Starting Over

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

If you'd like to have a New Year's resolution, resolve to be pleasing to the Lord." John MacArthur

Did you ring in the New Year, or did you wake up to the New Year?

There is just something about waking up on New Years Day that seems different than most days.  It's a new day, in a new year; a clean page on the calendar, a clean slate.  

Then we get out of bed.  LOL

During the last week of any previous year, there is excitement in the air!  People making resolutions, making promises, setting new goals.  Everything just feels so fresh, so new.

And then an old, familiar enemy returns: Sin.

New resolutions are broken on day one!  How can that be when we were so convinced that this time would be different than all the other New Years Day?

There is a decision to be made at this crucial moment.  We've already failed at keeping our new resolutions, so what are we going to do next?  Are we going to give up completely and wait another full year to try it again?  Are we going to wallow in our failure?  

Or will we draw a line in the sand, confess our sin and allow God to give us another clean slate?  

I think we forget sometimes that we are sinners saved by grace.

I think we forget that as long as we are living on this earth, in our sinful bodies, there will be broken resolutions, broken promises and unreached goals. Sometimes we forget that we are just dust.

But God knows our frame.

"For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." Psalm 103:14

And because He knows our frame, He has given us a way to sweep away the dust.

Confess, and start over.

I want to encourage you on this brand-new, New Year's Day...

    that when your new resolution falls short, don't quit!

        Confess your sin, get back up and try again...

           But that's just me!

"For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again:" Proverbs 24:16a

"I wish, my brothers and sisters, that during this year you may live nearer to Christ than you have ever done before. Depend upon it, it is when we think much of Christ that we think little of ourselves, little of our troubles, and little of the doubts and fears that surround us." Charles Spurgeon