New Year! New Me!
Bible Readings
Take a few minutes to read the Bible verses listed and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in how this verse applies to you this week.
Galatians 5:22-23, Ephesians 4:22-24
22 God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, 23 gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 You were told that your foolish desires will destroy you and that you must give up your old way of life with all its bad habits. 23 Let the Spirit change your way of thinking 24 and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy.
Ephesians 4:22-24
Memory Verse
2 Corinthians 3:18
18 So our faces are not covered. They show the bright glory of the Lord, as the Lord's Spirit makes us more and more like our glorious Lord.
Happy New Year! Wait, wasn’t the new year way back in September when we returned to school? Why are we celebrating a new year now?
Most of us look forward to beginning a new school year after summer break. When the warmer weather cools and the leaves change color, it’s time to start a new grade, meet new friends, and grow in new ways.
However, the calendar we follow marks the beginning of each year in January, when we celebrate New Year’s Day. Sometimes, celebrating a new year in the middle of winter, during Christmas break, feels kind of funny.
Just like getting a haircut and putting on a new backpack filled with brand-new school supplies, the Spirit will make us “into a new person” when we come to him. He invites us to put on God’s Spirit, making us “loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled” (Galatians 5:22). The fruit of the Spirit is seen when we show the same love, kindness, and goodness that Jesus has. Unlike a new outfit we wear and then take off at the end of our first day at school, the fruit of the Spirit shapes us from the inside out. It helps us live out our lives in Christ and point others to him.
Paul writes to the Galatians, reminding them that we have access to these gifts from God through God's Spirit. They are tools that change the heart.
This new year, God wants to do something wonderful and new in you! He wants to make you more like him. He wants to shine through you with his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We are called as Christ-followers to display his fruit to the whole world. So why not use these gifts as much as possible this week?
Prayer
Dear Jesus, you are the best example for me to follow. Please help me be more like you. Fill my heart to show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Let your light shine in me so others can see you. Amen.Related Resources
Holly Sperling
Holly Sperling teaches grade 2 at Edmonton Christian School in Edmonton, Alberta. She loves journeying with children and their families to discover God’s redemptive love and role in His story. Holly and her husband, Burke have a blended family of five, enjoying being grandparents and are attempting to train their very active Pyrenees Poodle.