SOMETHING BRAND NEW

If you had 2008 to live over again, would you do anything different?

Most of us live with regret. Most of us have made mistakes. Failure is something all of us are familiar with. Sometimes you can give life your best shot and still come up short. Sometimes you can study for the test and still fail, BIG TIME. Sometimes you can work really hard at your job and still get laid off. Sometimes you can put lots of effort into your marriage, and still come up short.

One of the things I love about a new year is the opportunity it brings to start over, to reset.

By all accounts, 2008 was a tough year. It was a tough year nationally: an insane economy, out of control gas prices, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and continuing chaos in the middle east. It was an absolutely CRAZY year.

But it was also a tough year for a lot of people personally. For our family, it was the toughest year we've ever experienced. My Dad was diagnosed with brain cancer in January. He went home to be with the Lord in late August. Everything in between is a blur. You've probably got your own stories of heartache, loss and pain from 08.

We all need a chance to RESET.

Here's an important promise for anyone praying for a chance to begin again, start over, or hit RESET.

Isaiah 43:18-19 (MSG) says, "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in bad lands."

Maybe your prayer the first day of this new year is, "God, I desperately need a new year. Things were pretty tough in 08."

Here's God's promise: "I'm about to do something brand new."

I believe that God is a whole lot more interested in my future than He's interested in my past. He's not into "replays" of my pain, past, failures and regrets.

God is "into" giving people like me and people like you a BRAND NEW START. He longs to do something new in you and me. He even wants to make a "road through the desert" and "rivers in bad lands."

That's good news for people like me and people like you.

Hit RESET. It's time for God to do something brand new in YOU.