New Year, New Me?

It’s the time of year where people start to think about New Year’s resolutions and goals for the next few months, where the phrase ‘new year, new you’ seems to be used in abundance. 

What will help me achieve ‘new year, new me’? Well, thankfully a quick Google brings up several articles that promise to provide answers, such as: ‘75 Best New Year, New Me ideas’ and ‘65 Achievable New Year's Resolutions You'll Actually Keep’.

 

Even without researching, just by listening to the media, there are answers implied to what might help make me ‘new’: updating my wardrobe, booking a holiday for my next adventure, getting fitter, having a career change, moving house, altering my diet, and the list goes on.

 

But what does ‘new year, new you’ mean? According to the Oxford dictionary, the word ‘new’ means ‘something that is not familiar, not existing before, or recently made, invented, or introduced.’

 

Whilst it’s nice to go on trips, get healthier and enjoy some new clothes, whilst it’s important to look after my mental health, develop new skills and feel fulfilled in my work, will changing any of that really make me a completely new, never seen before, better version of myself for 2025? 

 

It can feel like a lot of pressure to become a ‘new me’ and can be overwhelming to look ahead to a new year and try to make each one better than the last. Thankfully though, I have the security of knowing that I’ve already been made ‘new’.

 

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!’

 

As a Christian, I believe that Jesus Christ died to save me from my sins (the wrong things I do) so I am able to have a personal relationship with Him. And amazingly, all I needed to do to accept that rescue is trust Him and turn away (repent) from those bad things.

 

But what does this ‘new me’ in Him look like? It gives me:

  • New identity – I’m a child of God. I am cared for and have worth in His eyes – He knows me, made me, formed me and has a plan and purpose for me.
  • New life – I have the promise of eternity with God. 
  • New perspective – knowing that I have been forgiven for all of the bad things I do, say and think, and that I am loved by God, gives me a new way of looking at the world around me and the people in it.

Does that mean I’m the finished article? That I cannot improve in any way? Not at all – I am far from perfect and there are lots of areas I would like to develop and grow in. I will never become the perfect version of myself in this life, and that’s okay – I don’t need to be perfect because Jesus was. He saved me from all the wrong things I have done (and will do) and I can live secure in Him. 

 

So, whilst it’s great to reflect on the year that has gone by and look ahead to the year to come, I know that no matter what it brings – good and bad, I have already been made ‘new’. 


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