New Year with Jesus: A 31-Day Devotional Reflecting on New Beginnings and Fresh Starts (paperback)

The New Year and New Beginnings

As we turn our calendar from December 31 to January 1, our thoughts often turn to a new beginning, to a fresh start. Each new year does that for us. It sharpens our focus on what the next 365 days have to offer.

This helps us understand why many people make New Year’s resolutions. They resolve to set behind what was and move toward what will be as they envision a better future for themselves.

Yet deciding to change our lives is just the first step. Next, we must make those changes that we desire. Then the key is maintaining them.

If we are both intentional and consistent about a change, at some point it becomes a habit. Some claim this habit can occur in as little as twenty-one days, while others assert it takes as long as three to six months. The point is that once we repeat our resolution often enough to become a habit, it’s much easier to maintain.

Other people greet the new year by setting goals. Though change resolution and goal setting are very similar, the difference is in the implementation. Resolutions result in a day-by-day determination to bring about change. Goal setting envisions the outcome. Goal setters then attempt to move toward that result.

Both change resolution and goal setting can happen at any time during the year, when we most perceive the need. Yet, for many, these most clearly occur on January 1. For some people, this is a New Year’s resolution. For others, it is annual goal setting. And some people do neither, merely hoping the new year will be better than the last one.

Regardless of our perspective, as we embrace the new year—or any new beginning throughout our life—this devotional will help us focus our perspective on Jesus and what it means to follow him as his disciple, all while embracing a fresh start.

There is both a practical and a spiritual aspect to making resolutions, setting goals, and embracing the new year. Whichever approach we take, may we do so for our Lord.

This devotional has thirty-one days in it, nicely aligning with the thirty-one days in January. Yet these readings apply equally well any time we want to embrace a new beginning. We can use them when we want to make a needed correction in our life or to celebrate a major milestone. This could include graduating from school, getting married, or having a child. It may mean moving to a different location, starting a new job, or changing churches.

For each transition, we can embrace this devotional as encouragement to move forward into whatever new adventure awaits us.