A Transforming Vision for the New Year

Political ads and commercials ad nauseam will continue to bombard us until elections in November. I’m undecided as to whom I will vote for. I was impressed with the Christmas ads from Senator John McCain. In it we see a young John McCain beaten, bruised, and tied to a cot in a dingy, dark cell as a POW in Vietnam. Senator McCain recounts how a guard came into his cell, untied him, and helped him out into the sunlight. The guard then took a stick and drew a cross in the dirt. That powerful vignette is the gospel of the cross.

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has transformed millions of lives. The power of the cross sets us free from the power of sin and death. It brings us from the prison of darkness into the transforming sunlight of God’s love. The Apostle Paul described it this way, “Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14 NKJV).

Senator McCain could have stayed bitter because of the treatment of his captors or remained focused on the past but he had a transforming vision of his life. How can we have a transforming vision for the New Year? The Apostle Paul teaches us these principles in Philippians 3.

First – FORGET the past. “But one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind” (Philippians 3:13 NKJV). We spend too much time looking in our rear-view mirror. Guilt and condemnation will keep you from moving forward. Some stay focused on the glory of their past achievements and do not move forward into their future.

Second – FORGIVENESS allows us to move forward and renews our vision of what God has for us. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). Unforgivness will obscure your vision and chain you to the past. Jesus taught us to forgive others as he forgave us. (Matthew 6:12, 14)

Third – FAITH in Christ alone will give you vision and victory this year of new beginnings – 2008. Paul made it clear that he did not trust in his own righteousness “but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:9). Faith in the cross of Christ will give you a transforming vision for the New Year. As John Newton experienced and wrote, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see.” That faith enabled William Wilberforce to persevere in his vision to see slavery abolished in the United Kingdom.

Fourth – FOCUS on Christ and His glory. When we focus on self or anything else our vision will be blurry and darkened. Focusing on Christ will bring light and a transforming vision for the New Year. Paul’s consuming passion and goal was, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10).

That is a life transforming vision. The things of this world are transitory. Life is short but eternity is sure. Do you have a transforming vision for the New Year? Look to the cross.