One thing I love about being a university professor is that a significant part of my job is constantly renewed. The previous semester is gone. Some of it was good; some of it was less good; all of it is in the past and can’t be changed. Now I have a new semester ahead in which to give my students the best experience and instruction that I can manage. I have new students, sometimes new material, new approaches to try. While the new can bring challenges, it also brings excitement and an opportunity to do even better by this next group of students.

Newness is also one of the exciting things about a life spent following Jesus Christ. The Bible is very clear that when we accept Christ, when we make that choice to acknowledge and turn away from our sin and obey God instead of our own desires, we are made new. Paul’s expression of that concept may be the most familiar to us: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV). Elsewhere he emphasizes again that our old lives are dead and gone: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4 ESV).

Many other verses emphasize that we were dead in our sin and that God has given us a new life and made everything new.

Unfortunately, we sometimes lose sight of God’s amazing regeneration of our souls and lives. We may look back and appreciate that one-time deal, but we don’t always live in our new life as we plod along on earth.

I think this is partly because we’ve missed the magnitude of the renewal that God offers us. The first great change is an amazing transformation, but God also calls us to a constant refreshing, a repeated renewing of hearts and minds. He calls us to sing new songs several times in the Psalms. We need new songs because they refresh us and renew our praise for God and our joy in him. In the midst of great sorrow, Jeremiah proclaims, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV).

We can see God’s willingness to renew and restore simply by reading the history of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. He repeatedly rescues the Israelites from the consequences of their bad actions and restores them as his people, until they stray again.

How do we take advantage of God’s offers of renewal? How do we live as the new and constantly renewed creatures that we should be as followers of Jesus Christ?

The key is in that last phrase. Jesus gave us the instructions we need to follow. “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23 ESV). We too often treat our choice to follow as a single event. Rather, we are called to make the conscious choice every day.When we do make that constant, conscious choice to submit to God and follow him, we will receive the renewal promised. We are told: “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31 ESV).

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash