Throw Out the Old Stuff as You Begin this New Year

Welcome to 2022! What’s going to be different this year? Have you made any New Year resolutions? We’re going to consider some this week.

Read Mark 2:18-22. Do you begin the New Year with excitement and ready to make those changes in your life you’ve been promising yourself for goodness knows how many New Years? Many of us start a New Year with good intentions – me included – but end up breaking our resolutions even before we’ve put the Christmas decorations away! Why?

Jesus says that often it’s because we’re trying to pour new wine into old wineskins. When we do that, we’re bound to fail because the old wineskins will burst. If we try to pour the new wine of “kindness” into the old wineskin of “being judgmental”, for example, then it will never work!

If you want to become the person God wants you to be in 2022 – more like his Son, Jesus Christ – then you must throw out your old wineskins – whatever they are – so that God can pour the Holy Spirit of his new wine into your New Year’s life.

Are you ready to throw out the old stuff? Are you excited that God has the power to mould you into the person he wants you to be, and that deep down, you want to be too? Do you trust that God won’t just help you to make the changes you want to make but lead you through them? Then get ready: 2022 is going to be a life-changing year!

THINK IT OVER

Think about the following:

•What are some of the “old wineskins” you need to discard at the beginning of this New Year?