Scripture
This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve.” Nehemiah 8:10-11

Observation
There is a path that can lead us from and old season and into a new one. It is not a simple process of stepping out one door and into the next.  There is always a hallway between rooms; there is always a process between seasons. Spring and autumn give prep time for summer and winter. There are principles we need to embrace daily, weekly, even monthly as we move from one season and into another.

Re-mind. A friend of mine said once, “I laid in bed this morning and I had to re-mind myself.” He accented heavily the word “mind.” We literally need a new mind, so we must re-mind the old one. By reminding ourselves of the promises of God we are making our mind new. Our greatest enemy during change is not external, it is always internal. There is an internal conversation in our thoughts. If it does not align with God’s word we will misinterpret the season. We will have suspicions, when we should have faith. Just as carefully as we chose the music we play in our car, we need to select with care our thoughts. The word of God will “re-mind” us and give us a fresh way of thinking.

Re-joice. “Re-joicing” is recycling old answers of prayer into new words of praise and thanks to God.  When current conditions demand more and do not yield as many reasons to praise, we need to turn to the archives of our past and “rejoice” by remembering again what God has done. In this way we begin to trace his trail, and can see, though we cannot see the destination that we know that God is steadily making a way.

Re-store. “Re-storing” is letting God fill up our inner warehouse for the future through sabbath rest. Convalescence is tedious. Outwardly we feel fine and anxious to move ahead. But inwardly there are deeper things to heal. When it seems that nothing is happening, God is doing everything. The inner warehouse is filling up with new supplies of grace.

Re-new. This step is different from the others. We can do nothing to make newness come, except to believe that “behold I make all things new.” Newness is a human longing. Fresh paint, new carpet, cut grass all touch something inside of us. “Re-newing” mean that God takes old things and makes them new from the inside out. He can bring us back to an old spot and we can find it unrecognizable. In this step we can do not except believe. This is all of God’s doing and none of ours. We can only offer him faith.

Prayer
Father, I write these things today, not because I’ve never heard them but because I need to constantly do them. Let these things become a reflexive part of my living so that all things can become new. Amen.