Is God Doing a New Thing in Your Life?

As I started writing this post yesterday, I was sitting at my desk, looking out the window. It was a beautiful sunny spring day. Our roses and some of the other plants in our backyard are blooming. Spring has sprung, as they say.

Appreciating the spring view outside got me thinking about new beginnings. Things that were inactive all winter are coming back to life. There’s a sense of renewal, a freshness in the air.

With all this change around us in nature, I thought it would be good to consider what might be changing in our own lives. Because changes, big or small, come along fairly often.

Changes can make us nervous, sad, or excited. But typically it means that God has something new planned for us.

My own big change is coming up when my daughter goes off to college in several months. I’m thinking it will be weird at first to go everywhere as a family of three!

Your change may not be that drastic. But we all have new things to face. Some of them are just part of life, expected in a sense, while others come as a surprise.

Here’s my favorite Bible passage about new things.

“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.” ~Isaiah 43:18-19

God orchestrates new things. In this case, He’s making a way for His people in the wilderness and meeting their needs by providing water in the desert.

God offers reassurance here because sometimes new beginnings can be scary. They might involve waiting – often a struggle for us! – or uncertainty. We can begin to doubt ourselves, and maybe we even doubt God.

We wonder, “Can this be right? Is this how it’s supposed to go ’cause I’m not real comfortable here! I was comfortable back there in the old way.”

Then we go back to how that chapter of Isaiah begins.

“But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” ~Isaiah 43:1,2

We are his. Wherever we go, He is with us. We may feel overwhelmed by what this new stage of life is bringing, but the Promise Keeper says those waters won’t overflow us and that fire is not going to burn us up.

This way, this change is new to you. You haven’t been this way before, but He has. He sees the end from the beginning.

“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” ~Isaiah 46:9, 10

We don’t dwell on the old, or look longingly back to what used to be. But when the doubts and uncertainties come, remember what God’s done in the past. He’s guided us through change, through new, before. He is faithful.

I have a sweet friend whose mom passed away this week. That dear lady experienced the greatest new beginning of all. As a Christian, she now has fully partaken of the hope of heaven. She’s received her incorruptible, undefiled, unfaded, reserved-for-her inheritance. [1 Peter 1:3,4]

Spring is a beautiful season. Just as we’re seeing new growth in nature, the blooming of flowers and trees, so I hope that God is doing some new things in our lives. May the change that’s happening grow our spiritual lives and help us be closer to Him.

Related posts:

• A Time and a Season for Everything
• When You’re in the Pit, Look Forward to Your New Song
• 10 Things God Might Use to Change Us This Year