A New Thing

“Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you now know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19

Today is the first Sunday of the new year. I am truly thankful that I was able to attend church today and worship in our services. Still waiting for full strength in my body since the surgery, but so grateful to God for His strength in my weakness today.

This verse found in Isaiah is one of my favourite verses in the Bible. It has always brought my heart such encouragement during seasons of dryness and desolation in my life. And there have been many of those times over the years! I can look back throughout my time of serving the Lord and see both the ups (seasons of plenty), and downs (wilderness seasons). During those dry seasons, it felt like my prayers would go no further than the ceiling above me. I often wondered if God could even hear me praying. But time and again, those dry spells would give way to the Lord reaching down and causing rivers to spring forth in the deserts of my life.

In reflecting on the start of this new year, I felt the Lord speaking to me that He was going to do a new thing. I am still waiting on more clarity on this — I don’t know if He is referring to a new thing in my personal life, or a new thing in the life of the church as a whole. But, I want to be open to the Lord’s purposes in this season.

The month of January is notorious for a time of making new year’s resolutions. I have never been one to have new year’s resolutions…mainly because I have failed at those so many times! But there is something to be said about doing something new. It is easy to stay comfortable in what we are used to and not want to change, but that can lead to being stuck in a rut at times. Sometimes change is necessary in our lives. There can be a lot of things that prevent us from change or doing something new. One of the biggest hindrances to change is fear, at least for me. We can be afraid to try something new or afraid that we won’t succeed. During those times we need to take a leap of faith and trust the Lord to help us see things through.

If there is anything that I have learned in the past couple of months is that life is short. We only have a small window of opportunity to influence the world and fulfill our God-given purposes here on earth. Time is too short now for me to make excuses. I almost passed from this earth into heaven in November of 2019 when I ended up in the hospital with an extensive abdominal blood clot. Every day that I have lived since that time has been a bonus and a blessing! It is important for me to take this time that the Lord has blessed me with to spread the good news of Jesus Christ, and I want to take whatever new steps the Lord asks of me in this moment.

I don’t know where you are in your life right now. You may feel like you are in a rut, or you may be embarking on a new journey. Whatever the case may be, I encourage you to take a look at your spiritual walk. Maybe there have been many years since you last allowed the Lord into your life. Take this new year of 2026 and do something new: open your Bible…attend church…forgive someone…pray. But when you do take that first step toward God, He will meet you where you are. Before long, you will feel the rivers spring forth in your desert. Get ready for the Lord to do a new thing!