Let Him Give You a New Beginning

Posted: 05 Dec 2008 01:00 AM CST
Is 29:17-24 / Mt 9:27-31

There is not one of us who cannot look back on certain moments in our past that make us blush with embarrassment or downright shame. Sometimes it’s a matter as simple as a foolish idea that we clung to far too tenaciously and far too long. Sometimes it’s a hurt that we inflicted on someone without even thinking. Sometimes it goes much deeper and involves a profoundly wrong and harmful choice, whose consequences are still reverberating through the years. Whatever the issue, the sadness and shame can run deep and can linger for years, leaving us with the feeling that we’ll never be done with it and never leave it behind.

In today’s reading from Isaiah, God is speaking to that very kind of experience. He knows the darkness of soul that our mistakes can burden us with, and the loss of heart as well. So through Jacob, the father of Israel, he speaks to all of us. “Now Jacob shall have nothing to be ashamed of, nor shall his face grow pale…Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding.”

God sees into our souls and knows our sins even more clearly than we do. He wants to heal our hearts and to wash away our sins. He wants to make us new, from the inside out, and He can do that if we will let Him. So relax in the Lord. Give Him your heart, and let Him give you a new beginning.