Cindy Powell

It’s a new day! 

It’s also the first day of a new month.  And we are only one month into an entirely new year.  So it is a new day, in a new month, in a year that is also still very new.

That’s a lot of new. 

And I’m glad. I’m really, really, glad.

I’m not entirely sure how the first month of the new year passed without me writing a single word on this blog. But I’m okay with that. In fact, I’m okay with a lot of things that haven’t seemed quite so okay in the past. 

It’s  all part of the new.

Guess I took a little unplanned vacation from writing. Sometimes those are the best kind. Unexpected pauses that bring new perspective. Opportunities to listen and learn. Moments to rest and reflect. Glimpses of grace that grant new insight; new hope … 

New life.

NEW.  NEW.  NEW.

NEW …

I’m just really liking that word right now. Can you tell? 

N. E. W.

It has a nice ring to it–don’t you think?

Best of all, I’m pretty sure God likes NEW too …

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

Pretty sure he likes new because he’s brought this verse to my attention about 4,582 times so far this year. Not that I’ve been counting or anything.  (Actually, I made that number up. I really haven’t been counting. But it’s been a lot of times. Really. A lot. )

So I’m thinking embracing the new would be a very smart thing to do.

And it also seems like it would be very smart NOT to dwell on the past. In fact, I refuse to take the disappointments of the past with me into the present. The old simply doesn’t fit what he’s doing in the new.

It seems smart because I SEE he really is doing a new thing.  I mean, I really see  it. As in, I see it with my eyeballs.  In the past, I have believed, but most of the time I had to “see” with the eyes of my heart.  But in the “new,” I’m actually beginning to see with my natural eyes. And since this is just the beginning of the new, I figure this is also just the beginning of seeing. 

I’m really glad about that, too.

In fact, I’m just plain glad in general. It feels good. It’s not that there haven’t been challenges already in the new. There have been plenty of them. And there will be plenty more.  But there has also been something else …

New grace.

Grace to face the challenges with a new depth of peace–and with new heights of joy.  Grace to look forward with new excitement.  Grace to embrace new dreams. Grace to breathe new life on old dreams.

Best of all, there’s grace to embrace new hope. New hope to believe it really is … 

A NEW day.   

And I’m glad.

What about you? Where is God breathing new life and new hope in for your life?  It’s a NEW day!  Arise and shine–your light has come!