The Weird Days Between Christmas & New Year’s
Can you think of anything you are planning on leaving behind this New Year’s? Any weight, sin, or hinderance that you know you should let go of, but you would rather wait until January 1st to start fresh? Then keep reading, because this article is for you! ❤️
// We’ve officially reached that weird in-between time when Christmas is over, and New Years isn’t quite here yet. You feel weird listening to Christmas music, but you don’t get to celebrate the new year until the weekend. You don’t feel you can quite begin the new year, but there’s not enough left of the old year to really accomplish anything significant. It’s the in-between time. //
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Resolutions & Fresh Starts
We all make resolutions of some kind. Whether it be a long list of all you’d like to accomplish in the next year, a mental compilation of goals and ideas, or just one thing you’ve been waiting to start as soon as January hits.
We all view the new year as a new start, a fresh beginning. A year with no mistakes in it yet, nothing for which you need to ask forgiveness, no problems with friends, no bad habits, no laziness.
You can start again brand new, lose that weight you’ve always wanted to, leave behind your old bad habits, make-up and reconnect with friends & family, and so on.
>>>Are there things in your life you’re planning on leaving in 2021? Secret sins kept in the dark for far too long? Negative feelings towards those who have hurt you? Bad habits that you have long been convicted of but never fully committed enough to give up? Unhealthy addictions that you just can’t seem to break?
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Procrastinating on Repentance Until A Better Time
I have a simple question for those reading. Why do we feel we have to wait until the new year to leave these things behind us?
God promises forgiveness to those who repent. He never said it has to be a significant date in order to “count”. He never said you should just wait till the new year so that you can look at it as a “fresh start”.
We are not promised another second, another minute, another day on this earth. So to put off giving up your sins until the new year is risky business. This truly is a life or death matter
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My Personal Procrastination:
Personally, I am someone who struggles with wanting to put things off until a significant event, place, or date. I always think, “I’ll wait until I get to that church service where I can lay it all down on the altar and repent. Then, I can leave and always point back to that night on the altar and know I was forgiven.” Or, “I’ll just wait until this important date to give this up, because then I can always say that that specific date is when I surrendered it all.”
I have lived most of my life this way, which is honestly frightening. I’ve always been big on remembering important dates (anniversaries of things and so on.) I suppose that is why I was always this way in my Christian walk as well. It was as if I needed an important date to validate my forgiveness.
It wasn’t until the past year or so that I finally realized what God had been trying to tell me all along: you don’t need an important date, or an altar in a church service, or certain emotions/feelings in order to be truly and fully forgiven.
You only have to be repentant.
[The Bible mentions both having a sorrowful heart and turning away from that which you are repenting of. A repentant heart is not just one that is sorry and moves on. It feels the complete conviction, and desperately wants to change the behaviors it knows are wrong. Humble yourself, confess your sins, and turn away from your sins.]
The Lord will not forgive a heart that intends to be forgiven for a short moment only to return again to it’s sins later on.
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I’m Forgiven, Now What?
In order to begin to comprehend repentance & forgiveness, we must realize that neither are dependent on our own strength, ability, or power.
While it is necessary for us to have a repentant heart to obtain God’s forgiveness, we cannot resist the temptations [that are sure to come after forgiveness] on our own.
We can only continue on with God’s help.
That is where most fall short, including myself at times. We like to think that after we’ve asked for God’s forgiveness, the hard part is over: we’ve repented. We like to believe that since we‘ve asked GOD to forgive us, that now WE can take over and keep our life changed.
But the true battle comes after forgiveness, when the devil is angry that we are no longer bound by his chains. He longs for you to remain a miserable trophy on his shelf. Asking for forgiveness frees you of his grip.
However, our faith does not end after believing we are forgiven.
It is when temptations come, after our forgiveness, that we must keep the faith and fully depend on Christ’s strength to resist temptation.
>>>The good news is, when we are forgiven, GOD IS ON OUR SIDE! <<<
There will be hard times, but He will fight for you! When you maintain your “side of the deal,” (reading your Bible, praying, having a relationship with God,) He will fight on your behalf!
You will have battles whether you have asked for forgiveness or not. But being forgiven by Jesus makes all the difference. With Him, you will have strength to go on-His help to overcome temptation. With Him, you can have true joy & peace.
He wants to give you life more abundantly!
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How does this relate to the weird days between Christmas and New Year’s?
I felt this thought was relevant to the days we are living right now between Christmas and New Year’s, because most of us are thinking of all the things we want to do differently in 2022.
If there are things in your life that have come to mind lately that you wanted to leave in 2021 and resolve to do differently in the next year, I would ask you to seriously consider giving them up today, right now.
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You don’t need an important date or the “fresh start” of a new year to begin a new life in Christ.
You don’t need a new year to help you give up that sin for good this time. This motivation is short-lasting.
Trust me, as someone who struggled with habitual sin for years, important dates like a new year never last as far as motivating you to stick to your new lifestyle.
Eventually, the devil will catch you in your weakest moment, and you may slip up. Then you’ll think, I’ve already messed up my clean new year of not committing this sin, so I might as well wait to give this up until *insert important date or church service, etc.*
But if you give up your sins now, you can always look back and say: •I didn’t give that up just because it was the new year and I wanted to start fresh. I gave it up a week before because I wanted God to forgive me. I wanted to have a real relationship with Him, and that sin was holding me back.
•I didn’t ask for forgiveness just to become a better person for the brand new year. I asked for forgiveness days before so that I could be unburdened from the weight & guilt that that bad habit brought to my life. Because when I’m feeling conviction but never repenting, I am hardening my heart towards God.
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Is January 21st Too Late?
*Now, imagine it is towards the end of January. You haven’t stuck to all the resolutions you made, and it’s only the first month of the new year. You’ve fallen back into some old habits, and committed the same sins you asked forgiveness for on January 1st.*
Everything I have written in this article can be applied to the days after the New Year too!
It’s never too late to ask for forgiveness! Even if it’s the end of January, even if it’s the middle of the year.
You are not promised another breath, another heartbeat. Live each moment intentionally. Live each moment forgiven.
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The Life or Death Matter
What if you were waiting until the new year to fully surrender, and God came back for His Church on December 30th?
Because you are not promised tomorrow, live today as if it was your last opportunity to get right with God!
Don’t wait until the new year to surrender your life to Him!
Prove your commitment to Him and surrender be for the New Year even gets here!
Start the new year with good habits already being put into place!
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God desires to give each and every person forgiveness. He died on the cross for not just one person, not just most people, not just good people. The sinner hanging next to him on a cross asked for forgiveness, and was granted it that very moment. In Luke 23:43, Jesus told him, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
He died for every single human being that has ever been on this earth, is living now, and is to be born in the future.
He has already done the initial work of dying on the cross. It is YOUR choice of whether you will live in guilt & condemnation, or live freely in Christ.
Repent & be forgiven today. Do not put it off until the new year. After all, what if Jesus were to come on December 30th?
by Allyson Million
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