A Fresh Start
Friday, March 28
A Fresh Start
Judges 13:1
And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
Let’s hit the pause button for a minute here to evaluate the course we’re currently following in 2025. How are those New Year’s Resolutions you made two months ago working out so far? What did God’s Spirit impress on you to alter? Maybe there was an addiction that needed breaking or a bitter spirit toward a neighbor that needed resolving or a habit of over-entertainment that needed amending. Maybe you committed to a small change—of diet or hobby or occupation—like giving up processed sugars for the year or deactivating your social media accounts that consume precious energy or changing the nightly routine of TV watching to crafting with your kids. Whatever it was, whatever you saw in the mirror of God’s Word that needed reforming, now that you’re two months in, how’s it going? Are you starting to get a second wind now that those initial withdrawals have turned into new habits, or have you already lost steam and thrown in the towel? I don’t ask this as a means of judgment, friend—you’re reading this devotional because you, like me, are actively trying to replace bad habits with Christ-honoring virtues—but I ask it as a means of encouragement. Because, LORD willing, we still have ten months left to make spiritual strides, starting with these twenty-four hours. And the last thing I want is for us to come to the end of this year—or the end of this month—or the end of this day—and find that God has breathed out an epitaph over the sum of our ventures that reads: “And they again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.”
God’s way, His promised land that flows with beauty and bounty, His peace that passes understanding, His purpose that fuels our labors of love, is so far better and richer and more rewarding than all the petty distractions and vices we so often exchange for it. So together, let’s resolve afresh to get up to our feet in faith, brush off the dust of yesterday’s compromises, and get busy filling up the script of this new chapter with a far better line than Judges 13:1.