Stop for a second and think about all the things you can associate between God and the word “new.” Seriously, make a quick list before reading further, either in your mind, on a sheet of paper, or in an e-doc. I’ll wait.
It’s one of those lists that once you think of your first entry, several more freely flow. New heart. New thing. New covenant. New creation. New life. New song. And if you were to take this little exercise one step further by searching “new” in Scripture, the results give you a sense that you are looking into the very nature of God. He does new.
A surprising observation from searching “new” in Scripture is how often you see God’s people committed to sing a new song. In Isaiah and the Psalms, writers are expressing their commitment to sing a new song to God or instructing their readers to sing a new song to God. The book of Revelation describes two scenes of God’s people singing new songs to God. You get the sense that these instructions and exhortations are God’s hinting nudge to keep ourselves in a state of readiness for the new that God wants to do in our lives and in the world around us.
So, this brings up four questions that might keep our hearts turned toward the “new” that God wants to do around us.
What have I held onto more tightly than God intended?
These tight “holds” can even be good things, things God has used in the past to minister to me and others, but things that He is no longer using. Being a nostalgic, I tend to hold onto things longer than their useful spiritual purpose. Jesus even said that religious traditions can nullify God’s Word. It’s easy to personally sanctify the tool God used: a song, an event, a program. But what I’m doing is creating a holy relic: ascribing high value to something that once helped me encounter God and so I feel obligated to protect it. By keeping a tight hold on the relic, I can miss the new God wants to do—picture digging out the relic, setting it on a table and saying, “Okay, God, there you go. Let’s have an encounter.”
What experience from my old “creature-ness” keeps trying to pull me back in?
As we journey along in life, we collect experiences. Some of these experiences are life-shaking mistakes full of regret, hurt, pain. These experiences begin to shape us as our Enemy uses these things to conform us to the image of our past. But in reality, God is conforming us to the image of His son…and He does that through renewal: we are a new creation, our minds are to be renewed, inwardly we are being renewed every day. I want to be in tune and responsive to a living active God, whose nature is new, who is constantly shaping me from the inside out.
What can I do to sing a new song?
Apparently resolving to sing a new song is the antidote for the two previous questions. By keeping my mind and my heart in a “new song” state, I am reminding myself that: 1) God has made me a new creature; no need to connect to my old creature; 2) God is doing new things around me; 3) God’s nature is new.
Why is this important?
In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul listed his holy relics, his spiritual pedigree and accomplishments. And then he writes this:
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
–Philippians 3:7-8 (ESV)
Paul is reflecting on things that once worked for him—credentials, practices, achievements that genuinely mattered and once shaped his faith. He doesn’t call them evil or false. He simply says they no longer get the final word. And you can see what’s at stake: knowing Christ Jesus.
In Isaiah 43 we see this:
19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
–Isaiah 43:19
While this verse certainly points to the new thing that God will do through Jesus, it also provides key insight into God and us: First: God does do new things, He uses new things; Second: We are very susceptible to missing it.
As an encouragement to be in a “new song” state of mind, and speaking of taking this little exercise one step further by searching “new” in Scripture, we have compiled a few of these verses for you in a video devo you can view here. It’s a montage of Scripture on God and new…it’s nothing fancy, no talking, just Scripture in black and white with some soft guitar background. Enjoy a brief stroll through Scripture, seeing things God likes to make new. After viewing the video you may want to join with the psalmist in singing a new song back to God. It will help put the “new” in your New Year.
Listen to the podcast episode of this blog post here.