Clear Out the Old to Make Room for the New

by Elizabeth Stewart

Last January, as the new year began, I wrote a post about this verse from the book of Isaiah, and as the year is winding down it's still on my mind and heart.

"Forget about what’s happened;

    don’t keep going over old history.

Be alert, be present. 

I’m about to do something brand-new.

    It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?

There it is!

 I’m making a road through the desert,

    rivers in the badlands." 

Isaiah 43:19 MSG

I don't think God is ever about ho-hum, boring, and status quo. We may feel stuck in the rut of our ordinary life. We may feel like an old dog that's too old to learn new tricks. But our God is a God of new life, new seasons, renewal and new mercies for every new day. He wants to do something brand new in our lives.

Just a few days ago was the first day of autumn, the start of a new season. The leaves are beginning to change color and fall off of the trees making room for the new growth that will come next spring. Perhaps the reason we aren't experiencing new growth in our walk with God is because there are some things we have to clear out in order to make room for the new. 

-Let go of the past. It's impossible for you to walk expectantly into the future carrying all of the baggage of the past along with you. You cannot change the failures of your past. You cannot change the hurts and disappointments you've been through in the past. With God's help, you can repent of your failures, receive God's forgiveness, and move on. With God's help, you can forgive those who hurt or failed you and receive healing for your wounded soul and walk forward into your future. With God's help, you can stop going over your old history, shut the door to your past, and walk forward into the new season that God has for you. 

-Let go of bitterness. One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Lamentations three. I think I love it because it's just so gut-level honest. In this chapter Jeremiah is telling God what a bitter lot in life God has given him. For twenty verses he rehearses all of his suffering and then in verse 21 a shift happens, Jeremiah lets go of his bitterness and embraces God's new mercy.

" But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation: It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not.They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness." Lamentations 3:21-23 AMPC

-Let go of fear.  Change can be scary. The familiar always feels safer than embracing change, But, in God, we should be in a state of continual growth and change. We should be like a tree, bearing fruit when it's harvest time, letting go when it's the season to shed our old leaves, sprouting new leaves in the spring, constantly growing, changing, maturing. We have to let go of our fear, trust God and yield to this process in our lives.

"And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity]." Psalm 1:3 AMPC

It's a new season, autumn. It can be a new season in our lives as well. Are we willing to make room for the new thing God wants to do?

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