“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” (1)

“Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (2)

“And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’“ (3)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (4)

New

Karen Connell

As I was pondering the writing of this article, I considered the word, new, and my mind went back to a series of events that began a journey into new like I had never considered before. I was resisting the idea of reconsidering these events because they represented so much pain: nonetheless, the Holy Spirit seems to be highlighting these as a springboard into the message contained in this writing.

Have you ever noticed that new things are often born through pain?

An example, a woman gives birth through pain and then we have a new baby to celebrate.

My experience has been that new often follows loss and pain. As I pondered the deep loss I had experienced and how bewildered, shocked, and devastated I felt through that loss, I questioned all my choices, my own discernment, my faith. I was rocked to my core. I desperately pressed into the Lord for some direction, and I heard one word, NEW. That became my lifeline. When things around me seemed to be completely blown up and crumbling, I held onto the word, new, and waited for what that might look like. It was the only hope I had in the middle of so much pain and darkness. I sensed in the middle of the devastation God wanted me to know that he was creating something new. I couldn’t comprehend new. I wanted the old. I wanted the familiar. I wanted to know something. Instead, I found myself forced to let go of all the old. As I tried to put my eyes on God with the hope of him building something new, I heard in my spirit, New means New. Wow, God was making quite a statement. Now I must lay down all my imaginings of what new could look like. All thoughts and ideas were rooted in what I already knew. God was telling me that I had no point of reference for the new he was creating. As I tried to find my bearings through the devastation, I wanted so badly to cling to something familiar. Yet the challenge in front of me was to let go and wait, seek, knock, and wait some more, all the while resisting the temptation to reach back to what was.

Did this journey have to be this devastating and painful?

I don’t know. What I do know is all through history after devastation, we can see where something brand new is created. After the flood with Noah, God created a new world. Often the landscape of devastation is the fertile ground for new to bloom. It was in such a landscape Jesus arrived.

Total devastation of a people oppressed and demoralized, estranged from their God who had been silent for four hundred years. Which is worse, estrangement from your creator and source or the daily oppression of a foreign and vile government? To make matters worse, after Jesus arrived, hundreds of his peers were slaughtered because of the demonic and deranged fears of a treacherous and egomaniac king. This was the landscape Jesus was born into.

Jesus, like us, had to fight for the new and resist the old. The old for Jesus was sitting at the right hand of the Father in splendor and glory. Jesus had to resist for thirty-three years the temptation to pull on his divinity to live fully from the new Adam. The old was not evil, it was wonderful, but if he hung to the old, the new would never arrive.

How terrifying to submit your wellbeing to such broken humanity. He had to keep his eyes on the Father, on his heart, and on his will. Then, the final devastating blow: betrayed, falsely accused, abandoned by his own, and wrongfully brutalized and murdered. “It is finished.” And suddenly the NEW. When Jesus walked the earth, no one in history could have imagined who he actually was and what he actually did. But all of Heaven knew. Heaven knew that God was creating something unimaginable—something brand new. A new covenant written in the blood of his Son. NEW means NEW! And you and I today are beneficiaries of that NEW.

“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.”(5)

I want to encourage each of us that God isn’t done writing our stories. If you are presently or have recently come through loss and pain, it is fertile soil for a whole crop of NEW to bloom. This is a new chapter and a new season, and he indeed is doing something new. We must ask him for the courage to let go of what we know, be willing to reach for the unknown, and receive and embrace the new. Why? Because NEW means New and none of us have been this way before. But he has, so let’s keep our eyes on him, and he will clear a path before us into the new, because we need NEW!

My Prayer for Us Today

Father, it is so scary to let everything go and just wait for you. Scary to try new things when we don’t have any of the old to lean on. Give us courage and joy in anticipation of the NEW you want to bring. In Jesus’ name, amen.

1. Revelation 21:5 ESV, emphasis added, Biblegateway

2. Mathew 9:17 ESV, emphasis added, Biblegateway

3. Luke 22:19-20 ESV, emphasis added, Biblegateway

4. II Corinthians 5:17 ESV, emphasis added, Biblegateway

5. Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV, emphasis added, Biblegateway