All Things New

Happy NEW Year! Doesn't a new year always make us reflect and ponder our life? I've been thinking about "newness" lately. To be honest, 2008 didn't bring a whole lot of new to my life personally. (Except if you count the holes I put in my ears!) For the most part, it's been the same old, same old.

And I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of having to say the same thing when people I haven't talked to in a while ask me, "What's new?"

"oh, not much..."

I was surprised to see how much the Bible talks about NEW. There's a lot of verses here and I thought about cutting this list down, but I think it's great to see how important God thinks NEWNESS is:

Psalm 33:3
Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.

Psalm 40:3
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

Psalm 98:1
Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

Proverbs 3:10
then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

Psalm 144:9
I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,

Isaiah 42:9
See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."

Isaiah 42:10
Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them.

Isaiah 48:6
You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? "From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.

Isaiah 62:2
The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.

Lamentations 3:23
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Ezekiel 36:26
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Mark 2:22
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."

Luke 5:36
He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.

Luke 22:20
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

John 13:34
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Romans 6:4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

2 Peter 3:13
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

Revelation 21:5
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

The one that is the most promising to me is this one:
Isaiah 43:19
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.

How exciting and promising is that?! The second part says that the dry and barren places will have life brought to them! Do you have "deserts" or "wastelands" in your life? I know I do. Things that I've been praying for that seem almost hopeless at this point. But, in 2009, I'm going to cling to this promise that God is going to do a NEW thing in my life.

I also know, that I need to do my part. I know we all have the obligatory resolution of reading the Bible more and yes, I do need to do that, but more than just reading it, I need to study it. Make it apply to MY life and I got some great inspiration from one of my favorite bloggers, Kelly. She was in a wasteland of wanting to have a baby and had gone through all kinds of drugs and specialists. Here's what she decided to do:

So in April – not only did we take a break from focusing on trying but I took a break from TV and the internet. I needed to take all of my time and spend it with Scott and with Jesus. I needed it to be quiet so I could hear Him speak. At the time we were doing “Experiencing God” in our Sunday School classes and our chapter that week was on FAITH. I also had been praying for God to give me a book of the Bible to focus on that week and He kept saying “Hebrews”. And in Hebrews – there is a chapter that speaks of all the men in the Bible who had great faith and because of their faith – God did amazing things. During this time – I started to feel this peace and joy come over me that I could not explain except to know that God was holding my hand and whispering “Wait on me – have faith that I can do anything”.

By the way...she is due any minute now with a little girl, Harper Brown Stamps!!

So here's my resolution this year. It's actually 2 parts. The first part is that I'm going to focus on spending more time with Jesus. More quiet time where I can hear Him speaking to me.

And the second part is a little bit more on the adventuresome side. Every month, I'm going to try/do something NEW! It may be as little as trying a new food, but every month I will blog about my new adventure.

So, if you've made it to the end of this post, thank you! It means you're a true friend of mine or...extremely bored! Regardless, I would covet your prayers as I make 2009 a year to focus on spending more quality time with Jesus. I hesitate to make a resolution with such strict guidelines as to what time and all because I want to set realistic goals. But what I'm going to try to do is set aside the 7 - 8:00 hour. It's usually after I eat dinner and right before my shows come on and usually I just watch ET or some other trash TV. So if you're watching it, say a little prayer for me :) Why not make that the most productive hour of my day?!

I leave you with this video of a song by one of my favorite artist, Steven Curtis Chapman, called All Things New. Happy New Year!