To enter the year of new beginnings for your circumstances, children, community, and church, we must be like the prophets Simeon and Anne – position ourselves properly before Christ. Let us study and see how they welcomed the Lord of new beginnings. They WAITED in the temple with faith and expectancy; WATCHED for the Christ with fasting and prayer; WORSHIPPED Christ with devotion and prophetic WORDS; and WITNESSED everywhere of Christ the Lord and Savior. To those who welcome the Christ of Christmas 2008 will be a year of new beginnings. Consider some new things that God wants to bring about in our lives in the coming year:

First – A NEW LIFE. Jesus taught that one cannot simply put a new patch on their old life or put new wine into old wineskins – you must be born anew from above. (Matthew 9:14-17; John 3:3) “Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). A new life in Christ is the entrance to God’s new beginnings.

Second – A NEW LOOK. TV reality shows zero in on man’s innate desire and need of a new look. But in Christ God offers the great exchange – our dirty, tattered, beggar’s clothes for His robe of pure white. Christ comes to live in each believer. God has predestined and intends for each believer to not look like the world but to look like Christ. (Romans 8:29-30) The year of new beginnings will be an extreme makeover for the true children of God.

Third – A NEW LASER EDGE for ministry. Have you ever tried to chop down a tree with a dull ax or cut wood with a dull blade? A sharp blade more than doubles its effectiveness. The Holy Spirit wills to put a laser edge on believers in service for the Lord in 2008. “Behold I will make you into a new sharp threshing instrument” (Isaiah 41:15). Let the light of the Word of God put a laser edge on your gifting. “Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6 NKJV). Yield to the Holy Spirit as Simeon and Anne did.

Fourth – A NEW LOAD of people ready for heaven. God is in the people business. (Luke 15) Are you praying and believing for the salvation of family members, neighbors, and people in foreign lands? We are in the end times. God desires to use you in a new way to share the good news of salvation. “And they sang a new song, ‘you are worthy . . . For you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation . . . and we shall reign on the earth’” (Revelation 5:9-10 NKJV).

Fifth – A NEW LOCATION. All believers are citizens of heaven. This world is not our home. The church looks to things above and not below for the things of this world are transitory. “For our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior” (Philippians 19-21). Position yourself before the Lord as you enter the year of new beginnings. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).