There is a thrill to it – something brand new. All over the world the people celebrate a new calendar year, simply a day like all others that starts with the usual daybreak and sunrise and ends with sunset and darkness. Still, it is different and marked by the date with which we count it. New resolutions are made. Thoughts and actions are lined up to change for the better and the hope of success is the motivation for an effort towards greater goals and higher achievement.

For the child of God every day is a new year. It is a new beginning with the ultimate clean slate. Isaiah 1:18 – to be quoted again and again until it becomes our default setting:

Come now, let us settle the matter,

    says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet,

    they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

    they shall be like wool.

In these days of new beginnings, sweep the old under the Blood so that no baggage of failure and disappointment clouds your new beginning. God is ready for you, with a good year ahead. He is a

good God who cannot act out of anything but the love that He is. He defines Himself as abounding in goodness and truth. Exodus 34:6:

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth…

He is the source of all good things. Exodus 33:19:

Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you…”

He loves you and wants to bless you exceedingly with His goodness, even in your wilderness and desert. Isaiah 43:19:

Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Sit still for a moment and think how you think. Thoughts are the key to new beginnings in every aspect of life. We all know how fruitless our new year’s resolutions can turn out to be. We need God and by the working of the Holy Spirit, renewed thinking. Romans 12:2:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Make a list of all the characteristics of God that will carry you through 2015. His goodness, unconditional love, faithfulness, grace, unmerited favour and the promise of His presence will be the foundation on which everything else in your life stands and grows.

If you have God, nothing else matters, if you don’t, it doesn’t matter what you have.

We are caught up in our calendar – counting and marking our days with numbers. God set Israel in a rhythm of celebrations for worship throughout the year. These first days of a new year are the perfect time to mark you calendar with special occasions of personal celebration.

Feasts are anointed parties, consciously celebrating blessing. Build them into your year and if you have children or family with you, include them when you dish up something special, marked by the testimony of God’s grace. Blessed is he, who distinguishes between the holy and the ordinary. Make the ordinary holy. Holy means to set it apart for a specific purpose. It is not something falsely elevated to be boring or unreachable. Just go ahead and declare an ordinary meal a celebration of blessing. Say it with joy and praise God in the process. Psalm 90:12:

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Celebrate blessing!

The Amplified Bible defines blessing as:

happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions…

with a happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace.

Now that is a mouth full of honey – eat it and be filled, just like Ezekiel in the presence of God so long ago. Ezekiel 3: 1-3:

He said to me, Son of man, eat what you find in this book; eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat the scroll.

And He said to me, Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

When we feast on the Word our eyes will be opened to see God’s goodness and direction in our lives. That is what makes life worth living. We are not the mindless victims of circumstances. We are princes and princesses of the Almighty and have access to supernatural intervention.

Please pray with me a New Year’s prayer:

My Father, thank you for Jesus your Son, who was born to die for my sins and to give me access to the throne room of the Most High.

I celebrate Your greatness and submit all fear and uncertainty to Your unconditional love for Your unmerited favour and me over all aspects of my life.

Open my eyes to see into the unseen of Your goodness and grace over my life.

Open my ears to hear Your voice, through You Word and in everything I do.

Lead me into Your presence to taste Your goodness and communicate through ceaseless prayer throughout the day.

Set a song of praise on my lips as I wake each morning, to thank You for blessing and submit my routine to Your direction.

I thank You that the content of this year will be determined by the promises in Your Word.

Praise the Father, praise the Son, Jesus and praise the Holy Spirit our comforter.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfathomable (inscrutable, unsearchable) are His judgments (His decisions)! And how untraceable (mysterious, undiscoverable) are His ways (His methods, His paths)!

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. [For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him.] To Him be glory forever! Amen (so be it).

[Romans 11:33,36]

Be greatly blessed in 2015.