HOPE TRIUMPHS
HOW TO TURN OVER A NEW LEAF
As we enter the New Year, we like to make new beginnings and resolutions for 2025. Image credit: HAMANN LA on Pexels.
By REVEREND TONY ZEKVELD
Turning over a new leaf is a delightful English idiom. It initially meant “to flip to a fresh, unwritten page, which is supposed to be symbolic of a clean start or a chance to write a new story”.
It has come to mean “making a fresh start”.
We enter the New Year 2025; we like to make new beginnings or resolutions for a new year. Perhaps we want to change a behaviour, overcome an addiction, or come out of a bad lifestyle choice. We want to turn over a new leaf.
The problem, though, is that we carry guilt from a shameful past into the new year. We just can’t turn the ‘guilt-button’ off and start fresh. Sin, guilt and shame for wrong deeds must be dealt with, if we are to make a fresh start. Guilt does not just go away. It sticks. It clings.
A lady, familiar to my wife and I, has been dealing with addiction for many years. She wants to have a clean beginning. She wants to start new. But how does she get rid of the guilt from a troubled past? She has broken so many of God’s commandments. It just cannot be ignored.
From where does the power to change come? Not from ourselves. If this power is from us, then we only get frustrated, fall into despair and we give up. To have a fresh start, to begin a new life, we need forgiveness of sin. This is a must. Only then are our guilt and shame removed. Then ‘turning over a new leaf’ is possible and even certain!
This power to change our lives comes from God. He alone can forgive our sins so that we begin a new life. The chosen pathway of forgiveness is Jesus. He, the Son of God, became man to die on the cross, to forgive sinners. He was buried and on the third day He arose again from the dead in order to give new life. To all who trust in Jesus, God truly forgives and removes all our guilt and shame. All of it! He makes us new.
With His promise of forgiveness in Christ, we have His power to turn over a new leaf. The Bible says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (emphasis mine).
This hope will not disappoint!
If you want to talk more, feel free to phone or text Reverend Tony Zekveld (“call me Pastor Tony”) at Hope Centre at 416-740-0543. His email is hopebrampton@gmail.com and website: www.hopecentrebrampton.com.