by Elizabeth Haarberg

Dealing with the old through Christ.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link

Entering into the new year seems like a good time to shed the old, which is what I’m writing about today, and enter into the freshness of anticipation of the next twelve months.

The old is dismissed.

Memories of the year (or years) are dealt with mentally.  We file them away in negative, positive or neutral categories. If negative, no matter what we do we can’t undo the fact it happened. We were present. Wounds were created. This can be as deep as abuse and neglect, and as little as a snub by a friend.

It happened.

Now what?

I encourage everyone to take a knee, literally, as we kneel to the One that can renew, refresh, remake, redeem all our wounds and pain. Surrender the pain, the wounds, the bruises our hearts have received to Christ. Let His Love and Power overwhelm the mess.

A friend of mine, who is a Catholic priest, says, “Jesus will never ask you to enter into the pain again, He will go for you.”

“Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.”
Psalm 23:6 Amplified Bible

There is beauty in the law that was put in motion in the Old Testament. The law was needed so we could be held to a standard from which only the Creator of the Universe could free us. If it wasn’t for the law, we wouldn’t NEED Jesus. We wouldn’t NEED anyone but ourselves. We would be in charge of our destiny, if we could maintain perfection. If someone violated us, or if we broke the law, we would be considered unclean. Then time, or some form of punishment, would be used to cleanse us well enough to enter back into the clan.

Time doesn’t exist in heaven like on Earth. Time only puts a scab on on our nasty wounds. It doesn’t heal.

The only way time works is by bringing us into a higher level as we surrender our will to God.

Jesus is the only healer who is both finite and infinite.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado