Mensa Otabil - A New Thing
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Welcome to a brand new week. It’s also the first day of a fresh start. The Fresh Start is a prayer campaign we are having from today for the next 21 days. We’re going to be praying, and we’re going to be focusing on preparation for the new year. So, I trust that you will not only be listening to the devotion but also praying along as we get ourselves ready for 2023 in a very spiritual way.
We start with Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 31. It says, «Behold, the days are coming,» says the Lord, «when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.» God’s relationship with people is always based on covenant, and so His relationship with Israel was based on covenant. There were a couple of covenants that He had with them, but the primary one is the one He had with them on Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were given, and then later the other laws were given. That became the framework of the arrangement.
But God says, «I’m going to do a new thing. I’m going to do a new covenant.» As we begin Fresh Start, we want to believe that God is also doing a new thing with us-not only a new year but a new thing in our lives. A couple of things I want you to note from this passage are that God starts by promising something new, and that is the nature of God. Before He does something, He talks about what He is going to do. For example, when God is going to create man in Genesis, He says, «Let us make man,» and then He made man. God promises, tells us what He’s going to do, and then He does it.
When God is going to do a new thing, He announces it ahead of time. He says, «The days are coming; I’m going to do a new thing.» I believe we are living in those days. God is promising to do a new thing with your life, and that new thing is a new covenant- it’s a new relationship, it’s a new arrangement. A covenant is the basis on which we relate to God. In this particular instance, He says, «I’m going to do a new thing.» In other words, «I’m going to have a new arrangement with you.»
We trust God that in 2023, He will do something new in our lives-that God will bring something fresh into our lives, into our homes, into our marriages, into our children, into our businesses, into our finances, and into our churches. Wherever we are, may the Lord do a new thing in our lives. May He transform that which is old and bring something new into our lives. He said He’s going to have this covenant with the children of Israel; He talks about Judah and Israel. God’s covenant is always with His people. He doesn’t just make a covenant into the air; He has a covenant, and it is toward His people-it is toward us.
So, everything new that God is doing, He has you in mind. It is designed for your good, for your blessing, and for your upliftment. As we spend 21 days in prayer, seeking the face of the Lord and preparing for the goodness of the Lord, may the Lord do something new in your life. May it affect you in a real way. May you experience the newness, the freshness, the power, and the goodness of the Lord in your life. Every covenant of God has people in mind; it’s either with Israel, with Abraham, or with us in the New Covenant through Christ Jesus. The covenant that He promised He would give to Israel-the new thing that He said He would do-is what Christ came to fulfill.
In Christ, those of us who are not Jews naturally-we are called Gentiles — are now part of this new covenant. This new promise is for us. This year, we take hold of it that God will do something new in your life. Expect a fresh time in the presence of the Lord in the coming days as we pray and seek the face of the Lord. Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, thank You for the New Covenant. I receive Your blessings of salvation, healing, and abundance in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.