The new year is well under way.  It always brings the need for some changes, some insignificant, others are major and require our thoughts and decisions.  We will never be able to go back to the previous year no mater how much we might desire to.  In some cases, we are relieved to put it behind us.

In 1914, Thomas A. Edison looked at two million dollars lying in ruin after a fire destroyed his factory in West Orange, New Jersey.  His insurance only covered $238,000 because the building was concrete and thought to be fireproof.  Much of his life's work lay in ashes before him.

His 24-year-old son, Charles, said his own heart ached for his 67-year-old father and no doubt expected him to be devastated over his great loss.  The next morning, Edison looked at the charred remains and said, "There is great value in disaster.  All our mistakes are burned up.  Thank God we can start anew."

What a great attitude!  He could have felt such remorse that he wouldn't be able to continue his valuable work, but just a few weeks later Edison produced a spectacular invention--his first phonograph!

Isn't that similar to what happens to us when we turn our lives over to Jesus Christ?  Our life before, stained with sin and its consequences, has been destroyed, blotted out and we are washed clean by the blood of the crucified Christ.  "Thank God we can start anew!"  Not only did the precious blood of our Savior thoroughly purge us of all our sin, it completely erased that sin from God's Memory Book!  He said it would never be brought up again to spoil our record in His Book.

This New Year is a wonderful opportunity to "start anew" and like Edison be more productive, for our Lord.  In spite of how much we might desire to relive our mistakes of the previous years and make changes, it is an impossible task.  It's etched in history, and we can live with regrets and remorse--or we can "start anew."  In God's eyes, once we have repented of past sins, we are innocent of them!

Our enemy, the devil, has designs on every Christian; he wants to stymie our lives by creating a mental video and plays it in our minds hoping to make us feel unworthy, un-forgiven and useless in the Kingdom of God.  He hopes to put ruts in our path that prevent us from making progress and keep us traveling the same way we always have in the ruts.

It is time to get out of the ruts!  God's "road grader" has prepared the road ahead to enable us to get out of Satan's efforts to hinder us in our "New-Life" progress.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Whether we are babes in Christ or elder saints, the same blood is applied that cleansed us from every sin and gave us a "new start."  That doesn't mean we have achieved perfection so that we never fail.  John wrote to those he considered his "little children"--

"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.  And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).

Every day is an opportunity to "Start Over"!  We never have to carry a load of sin; we never have to allow the devil to discourage us with failures; we never have to stop just because we see our lives lying in ruin like Edison's factory.  God is still God!  He is only ineffective if we allow Satan to defeat us.  The war was won at Calvary--forever!

Let us not allow this New Year to get underway with defeat because of past failure.  We are more than conquerors through our Lord Jesus Christ!

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37).

No one is capable of loving us as much as "Him that loved us."  Human love is wonderful and fulfilling, but it can never measure up to the Divine Love that died for us and now lives for us.  It was His death and resurrection that guarantees eternal life for all who will believe and accept Him.

May we let this New Year's resolution to put-past-failure-behind-us be the defining characteristic of our lives as we "Start Over" with the One who created us for His Glory!

Happy New Year!

~~Delores!~~