New Year, New Hope

Very little actually changes between December 31st and January 1st, yet many of us feel a sense of hope on January 1st that we didn’t feel on the previous night. We have a brand new year in front of us. This is a blank slate of sorts. We can change. Our situations can change.

This sense of hope is particularly apropos because we celebrate the New Year on the heels of Christmas, a holiday that is all about hope. Jesus is the personification of hope. I shared about this a few years ago when I was struggling to feel hope (see the post here). At the time, my husband and I had just been given an infertility diagnosis. I was feeling a number of things, but hope was definitely not one of them! As I was reading the Bible, I realized that Christmas is about the birth of Hope.

When Jesus began his ministry, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to tell them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read.” Luke 4:18-21 (NET)

Jesus was reading from Isaiah 61. The words in this book were written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, yet Jesus made it clear that he is the fulfillment of them. He is the one bringing the hope promised in the verses. If you read on in Isaiah 61, you see additional outcomes of hope: joy in place of mourning, praise in place of discouragement, restoration in place of desolation, etc.

(Click on the image to view and download a larger, printable version of it.)

Simply feeling a sense of hope isn’t going to accomplish much. It feels good, of course, but this feeling is unlikely to bring about change. However, Jesus—hope incarnate—is able to bring about change. This year, let’s put our faith in him and submit to his ways so he can bring about the change that we need.

Do you feel hopeful as we enter 2020? In what areas of your life do you hope for change?

Shared at the following:

Encouraging Hearts and Home, Busy Monday, Over the Moon, and Grace and Truth.