A New Garment

Mark 2: 21-22
"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."

Do you find that each year you keep trying to start over in your faith, let bygones be bygones, make that New Year’s resolution and find yourself on December 31st, doing it all over again? I do. Every year I make all these deals with myself. I’m going to do this or that. The problem is, I’m building on something old. I haven’t really gotten rid of the things that held me down the year before. I still clutch onto them and then expect the next year to be different. And it never is. This year, I pray that I can give up all those things that have a hold on my life and start fresh, new. Jesus gave us this verse about wineskins when asked about fasting. This year, let us remember that the most important thing we can do in the New Year, is to give our time to Jesus. This is through prayer, Bible reading, fasting and attitude. Don’t think of it as a resolution, but rather, a commitment. Resolutions are assumed to be broken, commitments are meant to be kept.

Blessings to you and your family in 2008.