Reflect and Reset

Intro

2024 is officially a wrap! And, may I just say for all of us, what a year! 2024 presented with it some challenges for many in this room. Excitement, difficulty, busyness, loss, answered prayer: these are some terms that describe this past year for many of us in the room tonight.

2025 is here! And with is, newness. We get excited for each New Year because we see it as a new start, a reset if you will. We see new opportunity, new vision, new mercy from God.

Tonight, as we look to the New Year I want to encourage you with two words: Reflect and Reset.

Isaiah 43:18–19 “Remember ye not the former things, Neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; Now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, And rivers in the desert.”

Contextually speaking, God is speaking to His children in exile, but like with all Scripture, the principles carry over to us, God’s children today living in a land of despair, some even in spiritual exile.

God encourages His people to stop, remember not the former things, but behold the new.

Reflect

Reflection, looking back on things of old with an attitude of correction and betterment. This is true reflection. And, as we close our one more year and enter one more anew, we must reflect.

Much has happened in your life this year, much over which to lament, much over which to rejoice, all to be reflected upon.

I encourage you, with a spirit of correction and betterment, reflect tonight. Reflect on what God has done in your life this year, the answered prayers.

Reflect on the sin you have overcome and be reminded of sin still yet to be overcome.

Reflect on the loss.

Reflect on the rejoicing.

Like a face in a mirror, see what is there, see where you were this time last year and praise God for who you are now.

Reflect.

As you reflect, however, don’t get stuck. Don’t look at your sin over the past year and get stuck in it. Don’t see the loss and get stuck in despair. Don’t see the answered prayers and worry if they’ll be answered again. Don’t see the unanswered prayers and wonder if they may stay unanswered.

See what has been, and look to what is to come.

God encourages you with His word today as you look back to not stay back, but behold the newness of God and His will. See the new opportunity. The new vision. The new mercy from God.

Reset

As you reflect on 2024, begin a reset for 2025.

Lamentations 3:22–23 “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

I love this passage because it speaks so clearly to God’s call for us to reset and reset often. Each and every morning the mercies of God are brand new, and because so, we can rest that when we fail, we can be forgiven.

2024 can be left in the past. Who you were the last 365 days, what you went through, the pain, the trials, they can be left. You can reset, why? Because great is the faithfulness of God! His mercies are new daily.

On this first day of 2025, reset. Reset your goals. Reset your passion. Reset your zeal for the Lord. Allow God to come in and make you anew. Live in the born again lifestyle found in Scripture. Reset.

Don’t get stuck in 2024 because you messed up too much, don’t get stuck because you didn’t lose the weight you wanted to. Don’t get stuck because you didn’t finish your Bible reading plan.

Reflect on what was, allow the Holy Spirit to reset you for something new this 2025.

Lamentations 3:22–23 “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

I invite each of you to join me at the altar to pray. Pray a prayer of reflection. Pray a prayer of reset. As we enter a time of communion in just a moment, search your heat this moment as we pray and repent. Seek God’s face, seek reflection, seek a reset, seek new mercy — it’s waiting for you. Come pray.