‘Happy New Year’ and all that. It’s customary to approach the dawn of a new year buoyed up by a wave of optimism. ‘This year things are going to be different,’ we say to ourselves. We resolve to get fitter, make progress in our careers, or give more time to the things that really interest us in life. You may even have welcomed in 2024 with that kind of attitude. I don’t know how it worked out for you – dreams realised or hopes disappointed. But never mind, now it’s 2025. This time things really are going to be different.
Of course, it’s good to set ourselves goals. With a bit of effort, we can change things for the better. One thing that isn’t so easy to change is ourselves. The self-help industry is set up to try and help us do that, and it has some success in assisting people to overcome their fears or break bad habits. The Christian faith offers something deeper than that: a new you.
That ‘new you’ isn’t the result of self-help, but divine intervention. God sent his Son Jesus into the world to die on the cross so that our sins might be forgiven. Jesus rose from the dead to give new life and hope to all who believe in him. The Holy Spirit works in the hearts of believers to enable them to live as followers of Jesus. As Paul wrote in one of his letters in the New Testament, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Happy New Year!
