Leader: When you look up the word "new" in your Bible concordance, be ready for a wonderful experience! The word "new" appears over and over again. The promise of "new" is there for every person who chooses God. God brings a sense of "new" to us as we live in his presence. Repeatedly, we are promised a new morning, a new covenant, a new heart, a new spirit, a new joy, a new life. And I am so thankful. In fact, I find myself praying often for a new heart or a new start or a new beginning. I fail, I stumble, I fall, I sin, and I really need the "new" that God offers.
A new year offers us just that: a chance to start over, to put the old behind us and begin again. Let's read together just a few of the scriptures that relate to the topic of "new" and claim the promises of God for ourselves as we begin this New Year.
Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lament. 3:22-23
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 11:19
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
The Lord within her is righteous; he does no wrong. Morning by morning he dispenses his justice, and every new day he does not fail, yet the unrighteous know no shame. Zeph. 3:5
"And you don't put your wine in cracked bottles." Matthew 9:17
He did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you." Luke 22:20
"Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. John 13:34
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. Romans 7:6
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Cor. 5:17
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Galatians 6:15
Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything-and I do mean everything-connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life-a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. Ephes.4:22
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 2 Peter 3:13
And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 2 John 1:5
Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. Rev. 3:12
And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. Rev. 5:9
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Rev. 21:5
