I received an email from a website that sells tickets for sporting events. The website boasted, “A new year, a new you!” It went on to declare how it offered the best seats so that you could start the new year cheering on your favorite team. The implication of the email was that you are not where you want to be - you want to be at a game and now you can buy tickets and go! This is the new you. This is really what you want for your life.
The website was partially right. None of us are completely content with where we are in life. Surveys indicate people are generally discontent about their circumstances, relationships, and jobs. The website was wrong to suggest that one more sporting event will solve your unhappiness. In fact, many more sporting events, concerts, movies, or any other entertainment will not solve the deepest struggles in people’s lives. Our problem is not geographical, but spiritual. People were made to live in fellowship with God and many never experience this. A physical move cannot change a wayward heart.
A man in the Bible named Ezra knew this. He made plans to move to Jerusalem from Babylon to assist in rebuilding the city and to teach the law of God. He started this physical trip on the first day of the first month of a new year (Ezra 7:9). It evidently had been planned for some time, but the resolution was set into motion at the beginning of the new year. But Ezra’s trip was deeper than physical – it was spiritual. Verse 10 of the same chapter explains, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord and to do it…” There is no real change of life, regardless of our location, if there is no change of heart. His journey to change his life began first with a journey to change his heart.
So, what is your heart seeking after as you begin a new year? Jesus taught, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). If we are to turn the direction of our heart, we must change our priorities and goals in life. Again, Jesus taught, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33). We are to pursue God and His Kingdom above all else. Jesus also taught the greatest command: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart….” (Matthew 22:37). Simply put, there will be no new you in this new year unless there is a change of heart that begins to seek after God and to love Him above all else in life. A change of life for the new year will begin with a change of heart.