Happy New Year. I cannot believe we're at 2025. And I know we say this every single year... that we can't believe it's a new year, but time marches forward and it is indeed a new year. So did you make resolutions? Do you have goals for this year? Did you make any spiritual goals?

You know, reading through the Bible in a year or maybe helping in a new ministry that you've never tried before, or joining a small group? Of course I have these wonderful ideas for you if you're looking for a spiritual growth goal in the new year. But I want to talk about that word "new". That's what we're going to talk about in devotion today. I was thinking about the word "new" and how often it comes up in Scripture.

God is continually talking, especially through the prophets, about newness and new. And I really wanted to hone in on a beautiful verse or a couple verses in Ezekiel today. Ezekiel Chapter 36:26-27 where the Lord says, "a new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances." Such a beautiful promise that it is the the Lord Himself who puts a new heart in us, who gives us a new spirit. 

It's just as David writes in the 51st Psalm. "Created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." It is God who does the creating and the changing and the making new. And what a glorious word for us, as we are entering into this new year and the future is laid out before us.  We don't know what it holds, but we know that God knows what it holds.

We know that God has a will and a purpose for each of us, and that ultimately his will and purpose for you is that you would in the fullness of time be gathered to him with all the saints. We have that promise in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And as we are walking this side of heaven, God continues to renew our spirits, to put his own Spirit within us so that we walk as his new creations until we are in the presence of Him. I pray that this new year brings great blessings for you, that you are healthy, that you are filled with the joy of the Lord, and that you are renewed daily in and through His Word, in and through His Spirit. 

Heavenly Lord, we Thank you so much for this New Year. We thank you for everything of 2024. We know that it was a year that was filled with with many joys and also many sorrows and trials and tribulations. Lord, we thank you that you walked with us through it all. We thank you that you walk through every year with us and that you have not and will not ever leave us alone.

Lord, we ask that as we look to this New Year, that we would seek to follow you, that we would seek your will and discern where you are leading us and guiding us. Lord, help us to cling to the promise that we have in our baptism, the promise that we are yours, that we are forgiven, and that we have nothing to fear because you are our God and you love us. Lord, thank you so much for this day, thank you for tomorrow, and thank you for all of the days that await us in 2025. Bless us and keep us always in your love and mercy. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. 

Have a wonderful rest of your week, and I will very much look forward to worshipping with you this New Year on Sunday. God bless.

Pastor Malinak