Out With the Old and In With the New

I want to preface this post by saying The Lord offers new grace to us DAILY. We don’t need to wait for a new year, a new week or even hour. When we repent with a true and honest heart, and with the right intentions Jesus comes with abundant grace, reminding us of the sacrifice He made on the cross to bear our sin and make us a new creation, with new beginnings and the opportunity to draw closer to Him. We can repent and in an instant turn our back on sin and fix our eyes back on the cross. 

A true identifier of a believer is constant repentance. It’s knowing we will always fall short, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying to be more like Jesus. We can sin less with the aid of the Holy Spirit. We came to our salvation through repentance. Hebrews 4: 14-16 says “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into Heaven, Jesus the Son of God , let us HOLD FIRMLY to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet did not sin.” There’s action required from us to keep our salvation. Some teach that once you’re saved that’s it, no matter what you do or how you live you’re saved and going to heaven. But actually that isn’t what the bible teaches, just as the verse says we must hold firmly to our faith. You don’t hold firmly to something that cannot be taken from you. It goes onto say in verse 16 “Let us then approach God ‘s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” 

As we enter a new year I ask you to take some time to look at the year ahead and write down what you want your relationship with God to look like at the end of 2025. Our generation strives to be and obsesses over “relationship goals” but we focus on the wrong relationship. Our relationship with God should come before any other. It’s through that relationship that we find our peace, that we find our identity, that we learn how we must live this life and He brings our focus to what really matters. Our focus has been shifted away from the things of eternity and we have placed importance on fading materialistic things and trying to fit into a dying world.

1 Peter 1:3-7 says ““Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 

My prayer this year is that I can shift my focus off of the dying things of this world and onto His everlasting Kingdom because I don’t know about you, but I want that inheritance and through that He will use me on earth to build and expand His kingdom. 1 Cor 14:26 says that everything must be done so that the church may be built up. We serve a living God, a God that loves unconditionally and offers me a fresh start when I inevitably mess up. Not only that but then uses those mistakes to further His kingdom and uses me to help others who may have gone through similar situations or who battled with similar sins. One thing I hold close to my heart when I feel like my sin weighs too heavy is that Jesus forgave sinners time and time again all throughout Scripture. He healed them, He ate with them, He taught them and He loved them. His love and forgiveness is not the same as ours, which sometimes can make it hard for us to comprehend or even accept… but it is still there for us when we are ready to lay it at the foot of the cross and receive our inheritance.

John 8:34-36 says “Jesus replied, ‘very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”   Receive the gift.

John 1:16 says “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  Receive the gift. 

I pray for anyone who may read this, that in 2025 you may seek God wholeheartedly, accept His forgiveness and also forgive yourself. I pray as a nation we build each other up and edify each other in the Word. 

Be blessed. Be a blessing. 

Love Sonny xx