“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.” - Psalm 81:11-12
A brand new year - 2021. For many it is all excitement. For others relief from what they consider their worst year ever. Regardless of how we see 2020, the only good change coming in the new year will depend upon how we conduct our lives. It will depend on what we allow into our lives and those things we allow to influence our lives; otherwise, this year will be no different. In fact, it may even be worse! We can’t possibly believe that things will be any better if we continue to repeat the mistakes of the past. “But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.” - Jeremiah 7:24.
Think for just a moment: how can we even hope for a difference in our lives if we maintain old attitudes and old corruptions? Rhetorically, we walk down the same street everyday and get beaten up on the same corner, then repeat it again, day after day. How can we possibly expect anything to change for the better when we continually repeat doing all the wrong things and making all the wrong choices? Stubbornness is not a godly trait. It is an arrogant human trait and suggests that we are smarter and more powerful than God. It is truly the road to perdition. We were warned in the past of such lofty attitudes and we are warned still today - “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.” - Isaiah 13:11.
If we truly want the ‘new’ in our lives we must seek the new and not the same old sinful ways, hoping for a different outcome. We all know what that is the definition of. And if that weren’t enough, when we ignore God and pursue our own road, we inevitably reap what we sow. “Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.” - Proverbs 1:29-31. So why on earth would this year be any different than last year?
This shouldn’t come as any surprise to any of us. We know from our own pasts that God will ultimately give us what we demand, though not necessarily what we hope for or expect. And when He does so, based upon our inclinations and proclivities, we burst into tears and demand to know ‘why.’ Angered and saddened by God’s answers to our own demands we heap curses upon Him and merely deepen the hole we have dug for ourselves. “If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.” - Job 8:4. This, more than any other, gives all the more reason to be careful what we wish for.
And if we decide that your life hasn’t been all that bad up to now, you can thank the restraining hand of God that He has kept you from the worst consequences of your sinful desires.
But now is the rise of a new day and a new life based upon the promise of God, not some human manipulation resulting in more poor choices. God has promised us two possible resolutions to the lives we choose to live and He will certainly provide one or the other based upon our response to Him - the dire curse, “I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them.”- Ezekiel 25:17 or the benign blessing. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” - Ezekiel 36:26. There is no third option. Either we see God as a vengeful and hateful tyrant or we see Him as our Lord and Savior. 2021 could truly be a ‘new’ year and it all starts with our relationship with God.
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