Biblical Oxymoron – Beginning End

The year of the Lord 2009 has come to an end and the rising of the sun tomorrow will dawn a new year. While many (including myself) focus on the beginning of a new year,  we often forget the closure that needs to happen in the year that is ending. In order for the new year to commence, the current year needs to end first.

What are some of the things that we need to end with the ending year?
As I pondered over this question, I could think of two things that I should put an end to this year, so that the new me (creation) enters into the new year. These include Self and Sin. My prayer is that I start to think less of myself and more of Christ Jesus and others first and that I hide His edifying word in my heart that I may not sin against God or man, at least willfully. In order for the new creation [in Christ] to come, the old one [with self and sin] has to go (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Biblical oxymoron in this verse is that without an end, there is no beginning. There needs to be closure before commencement. The old has to go for the new to come as we cannot serve two masters.

What are the things in your life that need to end with the ending year? Think about it, make that list, act on it. Pray that the Lord God who begins the good work of conforming you to His image, putting an end to the old, will complete it according to His infallible Word (Philippians 1:6). In fact, do this before you start making your new year resolutions of the things you plan to begin, because it is better to end than to begin, as the Scripture so beautifully puts it in Ecclesiastes 7:8 which reads Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof..

Ecclesiastes 7:8 (KJV)
⁸ Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone [ended], the new has come [begun]!