Hope for the New Year - The Christian Life Is a Series of New Beginnings

As a young baby is developing, there are many stages of development and milestones to reach. From crawling to sitting up to eating to walking to running, a child’s life is a series of new beginnings. Over and over again, a young child experiences new things. Did you know followers of Jesus go through stages of development, too? As our faith develops, we experience many opportunities to learn and grow and mature. This process is not always linear. We often suffer small setbacks. Sometimes large ones. Why? Because we are flawed humans living in a fallen world with broken people. At times, we are faithless. But God is always faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). Think of Abraham, the father of our faith. He walked with God. Heard his voice. Obeyed. Then disobeyed. Then obeyed again! Abraham went to Egypt and told his wife Sarai to lie and tell others she was his sister and not his wife. He knew the pharaoh would seize her because of her beauty, bring her into his harem, and perhaps even kill Abraham (Genesis 12). So, he devised this plan. Bottom line: Abraham trusted his own methods over God’s. What did God do? He brought Abraham out of Egypt and back to the Promised Land! To begin anew. To start over. God renewed his covenant with Abraham. God gave him a new beginning. A fresh start. God does this with all of us as well. Through Jesus’s love and forgiveness, he gives second and third chances. New beginnings, all filled with Jesus’s enormous grace.