Happy New Year & Happy New You!
2023 HAS ARRIVED
WITH FRESH HOPE EXPECTANCY WONDER &
GRATITUDE
Sometimes we can’t see what is around the corner and are filled with fear. Or we can allow an unknown future to fill us with excitement, expectancy and hope. Sometimes we can’t see that change is possible in 2023, and we battle despair. We see decay as God declares that He is making all things new.
And this is something I am meditating upon as the page turns into 2023. When our natural world is experiencing degeneration, God is regenerating - making all things new.
And surprisingly, God loves a good wardrobe makeover. (And those who have been shopping the sales – say Yay!). God is passionate about us updating our spiritual wardrobe - a head-to-toe transformation of what we wear on the inside.
It’s amazing the clothes that we accumulate on the journey of life.
How we get to the finish line of a year, look down at what we are wearing, and realize how desperately we need an outfit change for 2023.
We accumulate spiritual clothes - some good, some bad, some just plain worn and tattered.
At the beginning of 2023, we need more time to look in the mirror and see what needs to be changed.
We may be wearing clothes we have picked up from others. Sometimes it is a cloak of rejection or a garment of shame.
Sometimes we pull on disappointment when prayers aren’t answered in the way we expect or as quickly as we imagined. Sometimes the length of the journey causes us to slip into weariness. Other times it is anger that has become an easy fit.
Many of us are shopping the sales looking to update our natural wardrobe. But I am here to remind you of the invitation to visit the word of God and update your spiritual wardrobe.
The New Year is an opportunity. An opportunity to put off and put on. An invitation to strip off the old and put on the new.
I hear the invitation, and I begin my wardrobe change.
The first garment I will be slipping off is weariness & disappointment. I am exchanging it for hope, expectation and appointment for the year ahead.
The 2nd garment I will be stripping off is fear. This garment is popular. We think it is going to protect us, keep us safe. But this garment is deceptive. It is a bad fit for humanity. It hides us, suffocates us and cuts off the breath of life. I am casting off the garment of fear this year.
In 2023 I will be wearing courage, boldness and faith.
Love is my final garment change. And it is a challenging one. To let go of the hurts, resentment, anger, and bitterness and remember the garment that fits me perfectly is the garment of love.
I need to step into a supernatural change room for this one. I ask the Lord to help me cast off these old and ugly clothes and remind me of the beauty of the garment of love. He sowed it together on the cross and handed it to all who would receive it. I can see mine. It is custom-fitted, costly, and has royalty and humility sown through the fabric. It has healing, beauty and redemption in its stitches, and I know I would be crazy not to wear it.
So, there it is.
3 basics for the new year.
The robust and fear-defeating garment of faith, the stunning and head-lifting helmet of hope and the beautiful, royal and costly garment of love. I’m in the change room with you cheering you on.
