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In Hope

The First Day Of This New Year

Wednesday January 1, 2025

Happy New Year!  This is the first day of the year 2025 and if we want to make a fresh start to the year we can choose to repent of our past sins and give our will and life over to the care of God, or we can just live in the “same old, same old”.  Making a choice to live in response to God’s love would be a life-giving start to the year. 

You have now become a new person and are always learning more about Christ. You are being made more like Christ. He is the One Who made you.   (Colossians 3:10 NLV)

We can enter this new year with joy and hope because God says that  when we invite Him into our lives we become new creations.  The old goes and the new comes.  Prior to God living in us we are like dead people walking around not knowing how to do life.  When God makes us alive, He not only shows us how to live but gives us the desire and the power to do things His way. 

God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So your new life should be like this: Show mercy to others. Be kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Don’t be angry with each other but forgive each other. If you feel someone has wronged you, forgive them. Forgive others because the Lord forgave you. Together with these things, the most important part of your new life is to love each other. Love is what holds everything together in perfect unity.  (Colossians 3:12-14 ERV)

Can we hope to live like that today and over the course of the following 364 days of this year?  Our hope must not be based in our own self-effort to get things right but in the God who chooses us and works powerfully in us to make us His holy people.  

This is what we are affirming in Step 2 of the 12-Step program, that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.  This is the humility spoken of in Step 7 when we humbly ask God to remove all our shortcomings.  This is the joy we experience in Step 12 as we realize that we have had a spiritual awakening and are not only sharing the good news but are practicing it in all our affairs. 

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, Thank You for not only inviting me to a new life with You but for coming to be that life in me today and each day of this new year.  You are the love that is always there to take me forward and the hope that lives inside me.  One day at a time in this year, help me to live as the person You created me to be.  Help me to become more like You in all my ways. Amen

Video Encouragement and Prayer 

 

Audio for The First Day Of This New Year

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Partners in Hope is supported wholly by our friends and community. We are thankful to everyone who partners with us to help bring hope to the discouraged, hurting, and hopeless.