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A new year, A new life


For some, the new year is a time to review the year that had just passed and look forward to the new year with anticipation of better things to come. There would be the usual new year resolutions etc. For others, 12 midnight on the 31st December is yet another chime on the clock.

But this new year for me was meet with a feeling of indifferent and not one of renewal and hope. For the year that has just come to end had been very turbulent, full of seemingly insurmountable challenges and wrought with misfortunes. For a while, it felt like living hell on earth and that I was stuck in a runt. But on the last day of the year something, someone, some higher power showed me a glimmer of hope.

In the morning on the last day of the year while waiting to go to church, I was sent an article from Harvard Business Review by Nicolas Petrie on “Pressure Doesn’t have to turn into stress”. The main key point of the article was to avoid rumination. What is rumination? To avoid rethinking past or future events, while attaching negative emotions to those thoughts.

Upon arriving in church which we were late coming into, the first thing we heard when we entered the hall was the Pastor preaching on Isaiah 43:18-19 which reads:
Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past
See, I am doing new things!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland
The Pastor’s important message that morning was to forget former things, do not dwell on the past and anticipate the transformational miracle in your life in the future. Do not call to mind past failures for they will bind you and paralyze you. Nor recall past successes for they will blind you and make you proud. 

As we were on our way back from service in the MRT, my mobile phone app verse of day showed me 2 Corinthians 5:17 which reads:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new
The essence of this scripture is that once in Christ, the renewal is from the inside, the Holy Spirit gives them new life and it is not a superficial renewal of life.

These 3 messages coming from 3 difference sources reaffirms the same message to not recall past events, hurts, heartaches and illness for it is time to move on to a new life. And it could not be so much of a coincidence that the same message came together on the same day from different sources, it would seem like God’s personal message.  

I have constantly thought negatively about myself in the past because of the cycles of misfortunes that have come upon me. These thoughts should be taken captive, not recalled anymore, for I am worthy, renewed and redeemed in Christ.

God also gave comfort and confidence to me on the last day of the year. There is a verse from Roman 8:31 which reads:
What then, shall we say in response to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
This verse has been coming to my mind on its own accord during my daily worship time for several weeks now, at that point I did not know it was a verse from Romans because I have yet to read Romans. But as I was listening to the pastor preach the morning sermon, he repeated this verse not once but 3 times. At that point I wondered why is it the same verse that has been in my mind for all these weeks. While conversing with my housemates only I came to know that the verse was from Romans. As if that was not enough “coincidence” for the day, as I was going through the long list of recommended reading by the elder, incidentally that very night I came upon the whole paragraph from Romans that contained this verse. As if God wanted to re-affirm again this message to me, before I slept that night, a friend sent me a new year greeting that, yes! you guessed it contained the same verse from Romans 8:31.  

The verses from Romans 8 are said to contain the most comforting promises in the scriptures for believers that have always faced persecution, illness and imprisonment but nothing can stop Christ’s constant presence in them. Do you sometimes feel that you are not worth saving because you aren’t good enough? These verses are a letter of comfort and confidence addressed to you. There are also powers of unseen forces of evil in the universe, but in Christ we are super-conquerors and his love will protect us from any such forces.

God’s message for the new year for me is clear - put the past behind you and do not recall it for God will always be with you through thick and thin and any unimaginable challenges in the future. HE has shown a glimmer hope to me this new year, that has taken on a new meaning altogether. And to everyone reading this article have a blessed year ahead of you and may God always be with you.  

Acknowledgement of passages taken from: 
Sermon by Pastor Chew Weng Chee on 31st December 2017 http://www.sibkl.org.my/ 
Life Application Study Bible 2011 
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Comments

  1. hcfmsiaed1 January 2018 at 17:02

    The Lord is your guide and shepherd who'll lead you to green pastures and nurture you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown2 January 2018 at 08:17

    Happy New Year sister! (",)/* Great to know you have a good start this year.
    Blessed much through your writting.
    Praise Him! Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
    In His great mercy God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3–5 May these truths always guard our heart and protect us till very end.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown20 March 2018 at 18:18

    Truly, we are more than conquerors in Christ & we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. Be blessed.

    ReplyDelete

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