Renewal

What do you think of with the coming of a new year?  Do you worry for things on the horizon?  Do you look back at what was left undone...what you could have done better?  Do you set goals for a "harder, better, faster, stronger" future?  What words come to mind?  Many of us resolve to revise, renew, reclaim, rework, reimagine, or even remake our lives in some way.  Well, I am one of these people...this blog has been a blessing in so many ways to many people and God has convicted me to revisit what He is doing here with the blog and with me.  A heart in Christ is a heart under construction.  It takes constant reworking, refining and renewing to remake a human heart into a Christ-like heart.

Renewal is not a new concept.  Each new season leads to the renewal of spring.  Each rain brings a revival of life.  Each trial we face brings reforming in our hearts, minds, and lives as Christ refines us from the inside out to make us more like Him.  Isaiah reminds us,

"You became weary on your many journeys, but you did not say, “I give up!” You found a renewal of your strength; therefore you did not grow weak." Isaiah 57:9-11

Refining can be wearisome...it is not easy to allow God's hand to remold our character...and if we allow ourselves to give up, do stay weary, to try to do it all on our own, WE WILL FAIL.  BUT, if we do not give up, if we look to God to renew our strength and lean on Him to help us through the reshaping process, we will come out on the other side renewed in deeper relationship with Christ and closer to the person He desires for us to be.

So, at the arrival of this new year, I'm prayerfully looking back on what God has done in my life in the past year and rethinking how I can partner with Him in what He is doing this year. In partnership with Christ, this blog will change from it's current form, and, hopefully become something honoring and glorifying to God.  Something that encourages and strengthens my renewal and, I hope, becomes something encouraging to you as well.

"Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God." Romans 12:1-3