A New Year, Fresh Start, and Challenge to Us All

It's January 1st; a time for new beginnings and a fresh start.  Don't you love those?  I do! 

As I look out my window, I see a covering of white - a blanket of snow spread out across the horizon yet untarnished and stained by the world's atmosphere.

That is exactly how I visualize this new year.  God has given each of us (as long as we're still breathing), a fresh start to live in a way that spreads love and goodness to those we come in contact with.

I don't know what the coming months will bring.  For many, perhaps even me, it may bring sadness and pain.  Yet on the same hand, there will be moments of joy and true blessing straight from the hand of God.  So what will you do with it?  This year,  I mean.  What will you do with the time God has given to you?  This fresh start?

Over the weekend, I watched the "home going" service of fallen Officer Jennifer Sebena.  It was probably, to me, one of the most inspiring testimonies of what God can do with a life submitted to Christ.

Apparently, Jennifer lived out her faith; her locker still housing her Bible opened to her favorite passage in the Psalms. 

Many told of her infectious smile and hard work ethic.  She loved life.  She took her job seriously, yet never passed up an opportunity to help others and display a God-refreshed heart.

This year, it is my goal to live out my faith for others to see.  Like Jennifer and so many others just like her, I want my life to reflect the love of Christ to those around me.  The only way to do that is by first being filled with the Holy Spirit's presence, and that comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

If you haven't made Jesus your Lord, then why not today?  Like the new year, the first snow, the sacrificed life, God can do a new work in you, making you a breath of freshness to those in your sphere of influence.

I ran across this verse this morning, and felt as if it was a good reminder to each of us for the coming days:

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland...I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise."  Isaiah 43:18-21

With that, I challenge you to start this new year off the right way: with God as your Lord and His love as a freshness within you each and every day. 


God bless!
Kristi

************************

As a side note...I'd like to encourage you to check out my latest Bible study for women called, Layers: Living a Life Unhindered.  It would be a great way to start off your year! :)