In a couple of days we will come to the end of the old year of 2020 and enter into the new year of 2021.  I have heard some say that they cannot wait for the year 2020 to end because all the many changes and restrictions in our lives.  Some say they would like the year 2020 to be erased from their memory.

        As a new year approaches, it is popular for people to make New Year's resolutions with the intention of changing their ways of living or lifestyles.  People are normally hoping to put their past behind them and forget all about it.  They want to have a whole new future and outlook. 

        "Words from Above" in the Bible tells us that there is a way to totally change our lives forever and begin a whole new life.  Paul the apostle speaks about this in Philippians 3:13, 14, where he says,       "Brethren, I count not myself to have arrived: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind me, and reaching forth unto those things which are before me, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

        It was also the apostle Paul who said in II Corinthians 5:17,  "Therefore, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away, behold all things become new." This is exactly what many people seek to achieve when they make their New Year's resolutions.  But this is also what God wants for us when it comes to our sins and transgressions.

        Micah 7:19 says that God "will have compassion of us, He will tread our iniquities underfoot, and He will cast all our sins into the deepest sea."  Psalm 103:12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us."  Also in Hebrews 8:12 it says that God "will be merciful toward our iniquities and He will remember our sins against us again."

        The most important piece of this puzzle is what do we have to do for God to forgive and forget the sins we have committed.  In one sense, God has already done what needs to be done by sending His Son Jesus to the earth to die on the Cross to pay the penalty for the sins of the people of the world.  However, we have to do our part as well, and that is that we must put our faith in God that He will truly forgive our sins.  We must believe that Jesus has the ability to be our Savior, and we must believe that He died for our own personal sins.