What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole. 1 Peter 1:3-5 MSG

The term “newness” would conventionally mean or be associated with something or someone being new, recent, or even different from the previously known state. Our opening verse brings into focus and slightly sums up the major points of the concept of newness. It says we have been given a brand-new life because of Jesus and it briefly hints at the kind of life: one where we have everything we need and one where God is keeping watch over us. 

Consider this divine promise:

“Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 AMPC

This scripture clearly points out the fact that newness is a change of story (one where the “old” gives way) and mindset. Reading again, we see that it takes a renewed and transformed mind to believe that rivers will flow in a desert or roads can be made in the wilderness.

Now, remember our opening verse and how it addresses us having a new life, one where we have everything we are living for. Well, one thing that of course accompanies a new life is a new name. It is like giving birth to a child and naming the said child. Isaiah 62:3 explains this vividly.

Amazing reality! See the clear contrast between the old name and the new one? What does it mean for you and me? We are now God’s delight. If ever we were (or felt) rejected, we now consider ourselves accepted. Weak? Now energized. Struggling? Now blessed! Yes, because God delights in us, we can now lay hold of every identity associated with being connected to God. 

Yet, to experience this newness and transformation, you must let go of the former things and fix your gaze on God like never before. Recall, the old must give way. The old will give way if we do not hold onto it, letting go of old names, old identities, old mindsets, and old beliefs. Only then will we be able to perceive, know, and accept that newness that God has in store.

Beyond letting go, in exchange, we focus on God and habitually behave and live up to the name (Hephzibah) we have graciously been given.

Beloved, beyond the text above, if this newness is what you seek in any area of your life (this change of name, this transformation from old to new, impossibilities to possibilities, rejected to accepted, forsaken to God’s delight), then all you need to do is confidently embrace it. 2 Corinthians 5:17 ERV puts it succinctly, “When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world. The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new!”