With a start of a new year, we often think of new beginnings. Resolutions are not usually lasting.

Someone has said that a resolution is "something that goes in one year and out the other."

Instead, we need real change that will endure. Have you ever wished you could start over again in some area of your life, wipe the slate clean, start fresh? The good news is you can.

God is not behind you, but in front of you, calling you onward, forward, higher and deeper in this new year. For better or worse, last year is over and done with, never to be repeated or revisited.

Jeremiah was given an object lesson about a potter and the clay in Jeremiah, chapter 18. Judah had become weakened by sin, idolatry, corruption and compromise. Jeremiah lamented the miserable condition of the people.

God told him to go to the potter's house. When he did, he saw the potter making a vessel on the wheel, but it did not turn out right. It marred in the hands of the potter. So the potter took the same lump of clay and continued working with it until it became a useful vessel. God was teaching Jeremiah, and us today, that he is the God of new beginnings, not only for a nation, but for individuals.

He doesn't throw us in the scrap heap if we mess up. In mercy, he is the Great Potter who wants to continue to shape, mold and develop our lives into vessels of honor if we will but allow him.

Are there areas of your life that "marred" last year, areas in which you need the Master Potter to reshape and remold you and give you a new beginning this year? He offers you a fresh, new start if you will yield yourself to his molding, and be submissive rather than resistive. We must remain pliable in his hands and become the vessel he wants us to be.

Allow God to continue to mold, shape and make you into the person you need to be throughout this new year. Yield yourself fully to his craftsmanship. He will make more out of your life than you ever dreamed possible.