HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Don’t you love new things? A new car smell, flowers, your favorite cologne or perfume, etc. are a few of the things that we enjoy new. The problem with new things is that they don’t remain new. A new car will eventually become old and that new smell that drew us to a new car to begin with now has vanished and has been replaced with the old smell of time. The flowers that we once enjoyed and thought were about the most beautiful aroma ever to enter into our nostrils and filled our minds with an essence forever embedded into our memories have now become dry and in the midst of their brittleness have lost not only their gorgeous beauty but also their bouquet of aromatic heaven. Perfumes become old and stale if not used in a timely manner. It seems everything tends to lose its newness.
Man is no difference. God created man in beauty and perfectness and to the Holy One; man in his newness was called “very good”. But we all know people (and maybe we are known by others) who have lost their beauty and their new state. Whether we consider a flower, a car, cologne or man, the truth of the matter is that beauty is lost and the blessed aroma is gone because of the entrance of sin into our world.
I think God likes new things as well. As far as creation goes, God has promised to create a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1, 2). Sin has stained and marked this world so much that a time is coming when God will make it new again. Never again will it become stained, broken, stale, nor in any other way lose its beauty and sweet smelling savor. Sin will never touch it again. In Revelation 21:5 God promises “…Behold, I make all things new…” But man will not be forgotten by God for He has promised in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” Through the redemption that is in Christ, what sin has broken, God will make new. What has become marred, He will bring again to its beauty. What was ugly from the fall in sin will become precious to the Heavenly Father and to no wonder – Christ died on the cross of Calvary that we might become free from all of sins pollutants. And we must remember that we have all sinned, every one of us, and have lost the “very good” standing man once enjoyed from God but He wants to make us new again via salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Someday I will finally arrive at a new home, with a new heavenly family in a new creation and I am thankful to God for these promises. However, there are some things I need to have Him renew in this life. Take note: “…renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalms 51:10). Or maybe “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…” (Isaiah 40:31). During our journey here we are reminded that we are continually needing a touch of God’s renewing power for in 2 Corinthians 4:16 we read, “…but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day”.
So, today let us desire and appreciate the newness God brings into our lives and may our walk be sweet smelling to our Lord. This is a new day. Walk with the Lord today and be a blessing.
Until then…
Bro. Glenn