How to Make a Fresh Start

How to Make a Fresh Start


How many of us would like to have a fresh start in our Christian life? Many of us have made many mistakes in our lives as Christians. We have experienced many setbacks and failures throughout our lives. Sometimes we allow these mistakes, these setbacks and failures to enslave us to the point that we never enjoy the full Christian life that God has given us to enjoy.

In John 10:10 Jesus said, “I have come that they (Believers) may have life, and have it to the full.” Then he goes on to tell us that there is an adversary, called the Devil, that seeks to “steal, kill and destroy” that life. The Devil will remind us of our past in order to keep us from enjoying the life that God gave us to live. The Devil does not want us to have a fresh start in life.

The good news is, God says, “I want you to have a fresh start in life, I want you to have a new beginning, I want to do something new and exciting in your life.” Maybe in the past we’ve said, “I am going to grow in my relationship with God. I am going to pray more, read my Bible more and get more involved in my church. I’m going to spend more quality time with my family. ” The list could go on. The fact is all of us have made some mistakes or we made some bad decision that hindered us from doing those things that wanted to do.

Well the good news is according to Psalm103:12, the Lord “has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. Forget about what’s happened before. He says don’t think about the past. It’s over. We need to understand that God is far more interested in our future than He is in our past. So it’s not to late to “start over”.

Maybe that is where you are right now! You feel that you have made so many mistakes, you have failed God so many times and you have sinned it all away. Now God doesn’t want anything to do with you. You feel and believe that you have no future with God. The good news is, God is saying, “ It’s not over, I have plans for your life. I am about to do something new for you. ”

Let’s look at a formula for starting over. S.T.A.R.T. Hopefully, we will remember this and pass it along to friends when they have failures. We or someone we know may have really blown it and maybe made some decisions really regret. Regardless of the failure we’ve had in our life, here’s how we can start over.

S – Stop making excuses.
If we want a fresh start in life, we have to stop making excuses for our failures. We’ve got to stop blaming other people. We’ve got to stop seeing ourselves as the victim of “our” circumstances.

Other people can hurt us, other people can harm us, and other people can scar us. But the only person that can ruin our lives is us. Nobody can ruin our lives without our permission. We have a choice and can choose how we’re going to respond to those hurts. It is hard to get people to admit when they are wrong. People do not like to admit, “I made a mistake, and I blew it.” The Bible says that the starting point is to just be honest and accept responsibility for our part in the problem.

“People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13)

T - Take An Inventory Of Our Lives
We need to take an inventory of our lives. That means we need to evaluate all our experiences. We need to look at what we have left after the failure. We need to take an inventory of our life’s experiences and learn from them.

"Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?" Galatians 3:4

Learn from our mistakes. Failure can be our friend or our foe. We determine if failure will be our friend or foe by the way we react to it. We can choose to learn from it or choose to repeat it. If we learn from it then it can be our friend. However, if we don’t learn from it is our foe.

There are four kinds of experiences that God uses to shape our lives.

• He uses personal experiences. The family that you grew up in, the people you relate to. God can use your personal experience with your husband or your wife. He uses personal experiences to shape you.
• He uses vocational and educational experiences to shape you.
• He uses spiritual experiences to shape us, like coming to church, going on a retreat or reading our Bibles, having a quiet time.
• He uses painful experiences to shape us

As we take inventory of our lives in starting over, we need to ask - what have I learned? There are people 40, 50 years old but they don’t have 40 or 50 years of experience. They’ve had the same year of experience over and over. They’ve never learned anything. We need to learn from our failures.

A - Act in faith
We have to launch out into new territory. In other words “get out of the boat”. The Bible says that the key to changing anything is faith. If we want to change our circumstance, it takes faith. If we want to change our personality, it takes faith. If we want to change anything in our life, we have to have some faith.

Jesus says this in Matthew 9. ““Because of your faith, it will happen.” That is a very simple statement but it’s very powerful.

What are we expecting in life? Are things going to be better or worse? Are they going to be the same? If we act in faith then we will do something positive to ensure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes over.

To start acting in faith means we’ve got to stop having a pity party. We’ve got to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. “Poor me! I’m such a victim. Life is unfair.” Of course life is unfair! Whoever said it was fair? Jesus said, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.” (John 16:33) This world is filled with sin and because of that, life is unfair. But we have to go on with life anyway.

Stop worrying about what others say or think. Proverbs 29:25 says " Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the LORD means safety.”

R - Refocus
We need to refocus our thoughts if we want to change our lives. If we want to get going again, if we want a fresh start, we need to rework the way that we think. We probably need to change our minds about a number of issues. Paul tells us to “…let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” (Romans 12:2) and “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8)

The way we think determines the way we feel. And the way we feel determines the way we act. If we want to change our actions, just change the way we think and it will eventually change the way we act. If we are depressed, discouraged and distressed it may be because we’re thinking depressed, discouraged and distressing thoughts. That’s our choice. We don’t have to think those thoughts. If we’re acting in fearful, worried ways it’s because we’re thinking fearful, worried thoughts.

If we have to refocus our thoughts to start over to get a fresh start, that means we have to stop thinking some old patterns. Which memories are we still rehearsing that keep us from having a fresh start in life? The Bible says let go. Let go of those things. The more we hold on to that memory, the more we rehearse it, it continues to hurt us today. We have to change our mind and let go and get rid of those painful, hurtful memories of shame and guilt and other things. Of course, there are some memories that will not go away but we need to avoid focusing on these. Some are just painful and some are guilty memories and Satan will keep bringing those to our mind if we let him.

T – Trust

Trust God to help us succeed. Depend on Him. We don’t need depend on ourselves. We’ve already proven that we can’t do it on our own. That’s why we’ve failed. Some people just don’t get it. They stumble and fall and then they get up and say, “I’ll just try harder!” It’s like you go up to a wall and bang your head against it and the wall doesn’t fall down. You try it again and Bang! Again. You keep doing it thinking, “Maybe it will fall over this time.” That’s the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results. If we keep doing the same thing then we will keep getting the same result. We can’t change who we are, only God can do that. I am not speaking about the outward man but the inner man. The real person is the hidden person of the heart. The writer of Proverbs says “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4:23) Success in the Christian life is not trying harder, but living smarter. Giving God control of our lives! “It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the LORD” (Zechariah 4:6 )

When someone becomes a Christian, They become a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun! God specializes in new beginnings. Jesus Christ has the power to do that. But we have to:

Stop making excuses

Take an inventory of our life

Act in faith

Refocus our thoughts

Trust God