We’ve now reached the end of 2025 AD. What does this mean? It first means that another 12-month cycle has passed us. That time on top of which we label “2025” is now gone forever. We cannot go back and change a single decision we made, nor a circumstance that we experienced. We have only the present to respond to, and our future to influence for good.

Secondly, this means that it’s now been about 2,026 years since the Lord Jesus was born on this earth. We must always keep this in mind, since that is the most important historical event in the universe.

But thirdly, the end of 2025 means that we’re still doing the same things, believing the same things, and thinking the same thoughts. The beginning of another twelve-month cycle doesn’t all of a sudden mean that our lives are going to be dramatically changed, or that we’ll suddenly be motivated to change our thinking and behavior in the ways we know we should.

No, a single movement from 11:59 PM to 12:00 AM doesn’t change our lives. It’s God who changes our character. If we’re a believer in Jesus, we have the blessed assurance that every day is a day for newness of life. We’ve received the eternal life of the Holy Spirit inside of us, and now we’re experiencing the power of eternity and the new creation within our hearts.

Paul makes this wonderful point in a verse from his second letter to the Corinthians, which reads,

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” – 2 Cor. 4:16

From this verse, God reminds we believers that we have the potential to become new people every day. He says that although our outward bodies are decaying like rotting things, our minds and souls are being continually made new every day!

How does this happen? Paul declares elsewhere:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds . . .” – Rom. 12:2

“. . . lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind . . .” – Eph. 4:22-23

In these verses, he tells us that our inner renewal happens in our minds, or where we think. Thus, to daily become new people, we need to daily learn what to think differently. And how do we learn what and how to think? From God’s Word, of course!

This is why it’s nearly essential that you take time every day to learn what God has taught through the Bible. If you don’t have a daily Bible reading and study routine, please start one today!

But besides giving us the obligation to let Scripture’s truth and wisdom mold our thinking, what we’ve looked at also gives us the hope that no matter what day it is, God is working for our good to turn us into new people. And why should we become new people? So we can think, feel, and act more like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Messiah!

So remember today, that regardless of the number given to this new 12-month cycle into which we’re entering, God is at work in you to renew your mind, so that you’ll will and work for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). And soon, very soon, Jesus will come and make all things new, so that we’ll see Him just as He is (1 Jn. 3:2)!