Starting the New Year with the old

Happy New Year! Yeah, I know, I’m a little late as we are already a few months in, and cruisin’ towards March; but life happens fast. They say it’s never too late to start again (or too early)... I don’t know....I’ve confused myself too. Anyway, I’ve taken some time to really study hard and pray in order to get to the heart of what God wants to say to you this new year.

As we begin a new chapter it’s only natural to desire a fresh start. To set resolutions to change, to be better, to try new things and break old habits. We want to do all the things we didn’t do last year, this year. We want new, new, new! Better, better, better! But what about freedom, freedom, freedom? We use the new year as an excuse to avoid dealing with things from our past, like we can just lay down the old and start new. Like, none of those things ever happened. *Poof!

A fresh start, by definition, means an unimpaired beginning of a journey.

New Year’s resolutions are usually set with good intentions and come from an earnest desire for positive change. They are good by definition, but if you are using them to sweep things under the rug, and become someone different, then they are incomplete. You are skipping to step two.

Do not move forward from step one until God tells you to.

This means dealing with things from your past that are continuing to trip you up.

It may seem like ugh, too much work to face traumatic experiences from before, can’t you just forget it and move on? Well, no, not if what happened to you is still affecting you negatively. Not if it is still holding you back by insecurities, wrong mindsets, fears and doubts. Not if you see yourself through the eyes of that experience.

For me, my New Year’s resolution had a one track mind: weight loss. My obsession with my weight began at puberty when I realized my baby fat wasn’t adorable anymore, and painfully continued well into my twenties. Every year I would set my New Year’s resolution to lose weight and think that this was gonna be the year it would magically fall off! Every year I would become more and more strict and extreme in my game plan to lose the weight, but every year I would become more and more confused and frustrated as to why my plan wasn’t working. From Isaiah 30:3 we learn that confusion comes when we are outside of God’s Will and we try and do things on our own.

I wasn’t becoming stronger or better by my resolutions; I was becoming damaged. I was once again the disappointment I had always been to myself, confirming my belief that I was a failure. I was creating wrong thought-processes, digging them deeper as each year passed. But time and time again I would skip a step. I was trying to treat the symptoms, not the condition. That only worked for a few weeks, but I’d end up back where I started. That is not freedom. I had to discover that I was believing lies about myself, and why I would turn to food for comfort, or why I allowed it to control me. I had to stop running and face issues from my past, however scary or painful.

So the big question is: what is God saying to you this year, right now?!

You have dwelt LONG ENOUGH on this mountain. Deuteronomy 1:6

If you have been doing the same old thing year after year, making the same mistakes, having the same bad relationships with different people, trying to change in every way you can, and you are still in the same place, or further down into the pit, then stop what you are doing. Don’t make another New Year’s resolution to change. Be changed by the One who can change you! Don’t be like the Israelites in the Bible who went through a very similar thing as they spent 40 years in the wilderness on what was supposed to be an 11 day journey! They were onto bigger and better things, being led into the Promised Land, but they just couldn’t get there!

Deal with what is before or behind you so you can enter your Promised Land! Wisdom tells us to let God do with us what He wants, when He wants, so that we do not waste time running around the same mountain. Trust that God wants to bless you and lead you to true freedom, and obey Him when He says to face your problems. Your ideas aren’t working. Start by sitting still and waiting for God. But, don’t give up hope or be discouraged, your God, your Father wants to help you. He wants to love on you and bring healing into your life.

If the Son (Jesus) liberates you, then you are really and unquestionably free. John 8:36.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned or scorched, nor will the flame kindle upon you. (Isaiah 43:2)

Ask yourself the tough question of what are you trying to sweep under the rug, and hide from this year? Let this year, be the year of freedom!

I am strong. I am able. I am a new creation in Christ. I will no longer allow my past to control my future. I believe that strongholds are being broken off of me in Jesus name! I am partnering with God to be healed and to break bondages the devil is using to hold me back. NO more, I say! Now is the time for freedom!

Thank you God, for your love and your mercy. Help me to face my past. Bring to the surface bondages that are holding me back. I believe with your help that I can find true freedom and become all you created me to be! I love you and I praise you Lord!