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Looking back – The whole Bible is a looking back. We look back at the realization that we were slaves to sin and now we are slaves to righteousness. The Old Testament had many laws and commandments. Jesus took the Old Testament commandments and made them stronger. His commandment is to love, and He demonstrated this by going to the cross for us. When God gives us new things, they are better.
There are many things to learn. What did we do in 2023 that improved our relationship with Jesus? Are we closer to Jesus now? How well did we put the fruit of the Spirit into action? What can we do or improve on in 2024? How can we improve the relationships in our families? How can we encourage them? Much of life is about improving the old things.
Everything will be new in heaven, but we can have new things before we get to heaven. God gives us new things. He is not done with us. Our joy should bubble over. God is a master at taking the hard things in our lives and making something beautiful out of it.
God makes something new out of us when we become His children. God doesn’t transform us on the outside, He changes us on the inside. We can be conformed to the world around us or we can be transformed. It is God’s mercy that we can look forward to a new year. God promises to renew us in the likeness of His Son. Looking more and more like Jesus at the end of 2024 is the goal we should have.