Introduction To The Fresh Start Bible Study

Happy New Year!

This Bible study is broken up into four sections, each taking a deeper look at some of the Scripture for this month. 

Section 1 is from the Scripture from Day 1, 2, and 23. 

Section 2 is from Day 10 and 11. 

Section 3 is from Day 18. 

Section 4 is from Day 22 and 31. 

Each section features the Scripture, commentary, and reflection questions. I invite you to digest as much or as little as you would like at a time. 

This entire study is a deeper look into the transformation God provides and what His process and timing looks like. Change takes time and a whole lot of effort and work! 

Feel free to take each section one at a time. Plan them out and plan some extra time in your schedule to do each section. 

I hope this is a fantastic study for you! There is so much God wants for you – the more we connect to Him the more we become!

In Him,

Alexis

Section 1

Isaiah 43:18-19

But forget all that- it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. (NLT)

Have you ever had a season of life where you found yourself waiting? Have you experienced a time when your life and focus revolved around the future, while the present felt like a holding zone where very little of importance was happening

For example, perhaps there was a period of time when all you could think about was starting a family, but was prevented from doing so due to circumstances beyond your control. Or maybe it was waiting the many months of a first pregnancy, quietly anticipating the unknown experience of giving birth and being responsible for a child. 

Do you know the experience of waiting for a call back from a job application, not knowing if your entire career could change with a single phone call? 

Or perhaps you’ve been forced to wait anxious weeks for a medical test result, repeatedly checking your phone to see if you’ve missed a call from the doctor. 

Waiting can be really tough, right? 

To live in the present, while your mind constantly drifts to the future, is not an easy way to live. And for me personally – I struggle deeply with having to wait.

Have you ever had a season of life where you found yourself waiting? Have you experienced a time when your life and focus revolved around the future, while the present felt like a holding zone where very little of importance was happening

For example, perhaps there was a period of time when all you could think about was starting a family, but was prevented from doing so due to circumstances beyond your control. Or maybe it was waiting the many months of a first pregnancy, quietly anticipating the unknown experience of giving birth and being responsible for a child. 

Do you know the experience of waiting for a call back from a job application, not knowing if your entire career could change with a single phone call? 

Or perhaps you’ve been forced to wait anxious weeks for a medical test result, repeatedly checking your phone to see if you’ve missed a call from the doctor. 

Waiting can be really tough, right? 

To live in the present, while your mind constantly drifts to the future, is not an easy way to live. And for me personally – I struggle deeply with having to wait.

In Isaiah 43:19, we are reminded that the Lord is working whether we see it or not. He is making a way – and He’s doing it regardless of our understanding or even appreciation of His work.

Often times, when we are working on change or focusing on building our relationship with God, it can seem like nothing is happening, that our efforts are not producing any fruit, and that our desires are not being realized. 

The Lord knows I myself had these thoughts too many times in my own life during seasons of waiting.

I know that I personally have been guilty of focusing on the wrong thing in the past. I’ve often zeroed in too closely on the desired outcome instead of seeing what God is doing in the small and quietness of my life. 

Look, I understand that we all tend to come to God with “Big Wish List” items. That’s when we approach God with prayer about a restored marriage, dramatic weight loss, a cure to a disease – and we throw ourselves desperately into prayer in hopes that God will save us. And don’t get me wrong – we should be praying for all of those things.

But…we also can easily become disheartened when the disease remains, the marriage is still broken, or our the scale hasn’t moved. 

We can begin to lose faith when we find ourselves still waiting. 

Change, and prayers answered, almost always takes time. It takes time because God is vastly interested in your overall wellbeing, and not just curing the symptoms that most concern us. 

You see, the symptoms are what we usually define as “The Problem,” but they are not typically the problem, but only the result of an underlying issue. 

For example, what if your need for weight loss is only a symptom of a much bigger issue than the physical state of your body? What if your excess weight represents a deeply buried hurt that God wants to heal at your core? What if He wants to take care of your soul before the weight can come off?

And the same goes for all of our issues. There are always underlying problems that God wants to heal and make new in our lives. This is how He is always working, and how He is making running streams in the dry wasteland. 

We can turn around our understanding of “unanswered prayers” by recognizing God’s work is a process, and not just the waving of a wand.

We have to choose to see and celebrate the small, often unnoticeable, things that are pointing us in the right direction, the sign that God is behind the movement in our lives. 

And what do those signs look like? A renewed spirit, a sense of peace, more kindness, better self-esteem, and greater self-worth. 

Seriously, these indicators are the road markers on the path to transformation with God. This is how He is changing all things, making a pathway through the wilderness. 

We do not often recognize this kind of work because we are looking for the big, obvious miracle – the huge answer of “Yes!” to our prayers. 

And that’s where we get tripped up, lose focus, and sometimes throw in the towel. Because when we find ourselves still waiting for the clear and unmistakable answer, while ignoring all the other signs around us, we start to believe God isn’t working in our lives. 

We start to think, whether we realize it or not, that God has forgotten us. 

And boy, the enemy wants us to believe that! Evil wants us to be confused, defeated, and forget who God is and what He is doing in our lives.

However, you can counter these feelings and thoughts by keeping your eyes on Jesus and your nose in Scripture. 

You can find Bible verses that help you remember who God is and what He is doing in your life. 

You can ask God to help you have eyes for Him and see His work in your life. Trust that God will answer these prayers. 

God will reveal Himself and His movement to you if you ask.

Our God is good. He works on His timetable and in His perfect way. Although it may feel like you’re endlessly waiting – just understand that He holds you closer than you realize. Walk in this truth today! 

Making It Stick – Questions

• What do seasons of waiting look like and feel like for you? 
• What do you think it would look like to traverse seasons of waiting closely connected to God? How might that might look different than old patterns?
• Are there any issues in your life that you believe that are symptomatic of a bigger problem that God wants to deal with in you?
• (Reread Isaiah 43:18-19) Take some time to reflect on where God has already created something new in your life that you may have not noticed?

Section 2

Matthew 5:48

But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. (NLT) 

Philippians 3:13

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it (perfection), but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.(NLT)

Have you ever felt like there was a standard that you could just never live up to or match? Have you ever felt defeated or fearful that you’ll be looked upon poorly because you can’t achieve an expectation that you feel is bearing down upon you?

Fear of living up to standards is very common, and it can be incredibly debilitating to our self-esteem and view of life. 

Yes, sometimes people unrealistically expect far more of us than we’re capable of achieving. But sometimes – people simply want us to be our best and to motivate us to achieve what they know we’re capable of doing. 

And that’s exactly what God wants of you.

I say all of this because many people have struggled immensely with the two verses we’re looking at here, and so I think it’s important to spend some time parsing out what God might genuinely be speaking to us in these passages. 

Let’s start with Matthew 5:48. But first… let me upfront tell you that when Jesus tells us to be “perfect”, just like our Heavenly Father, you have to realize that it’s a bit of a “loaded statement.” There is much more to Jesus’ direction than meets the eye. 

Because Jesus is the way we find perfection. We don’t do it alone.

Often times that gets muddled and confusing in practice. We might believe with our hearts and mind that our perfection comes from Jesus, but have a hard time putting it into practice in reality. Occasionally, we can go about it in our own efforts, instead of realizing that Jesus is the one who is perfecting us.

It is very common behavior for Christians, myself included, to “spiritualize” our approach to life and apply a sheen of the Gospel outwardly onto our same old way of living life. 

It’s easy to just say, “Yes, Jesus is the One who is changing me, the One who is working on my shortcomings.” And yet, while saying that, we continue to internally feel anxiety, stress, worry, doubt, anger, frustration, impatience, etc. 

I want to be very clear here: Jesus is the way to perfection. But that path to perfection looks different for each and every one of us.

The way you become perfect as Jesus calls us to be is simple…but it’s very difficult. It requires us to remain open to God and keep our eyes on Him no matter what happens. It means being open to go where He calls and leads you. 

And that leading is mostly internal. God wants to work on behaviors, thought patterns, and buried pain. This is the way He is making you new, by helping you become perfect like He is. But it is done through His direction and your willingness (trust and openness). 

The best example of how God makes us perfect is seen in the life of Paul. 

I just adore Paul. I am so thankful for his relentless pursuit of Christ, despite his horrific past sins. There is much hope in the story of Paul, both in his past history and in the ministry he undertook for the sake of the Gospel’s spread.

I purposefully chose these two verses, Matthew 5:38 and Philippians 3:13, to support each other, because there isn’t a better New Testament follower of Jesus than Paul to help us understand being made perfect in Christ.

If Paul, a person we all look to, speaks to still having shortcomings and imperfection after all of the ministry and discipleship that he undertook, then I think we should all feel a sigh of relief for ourselves having not lived up to such an impossibly high standard.

We never see an instance in the Scriptures where Paul is caught up in guilt or depression because of his past sins of persecuting Christians. 

Yes, Paul acknowledged his past problems, and his reputation followed him throughout his ministry. But when Paul accepted Jesus as Lord and 

Savior, Paul became a new person, so much so that he eventually began being known by the name “Paul,” and abandoned “Saul” (Acts 13:9).

He knew that the sins of the past (and the present and future) were covered by Christ. He knew his indiscretions were paid in full, and when something is paid in full, the debt is gone and there is only jubilation and freedom.

The enemy wants us to feel trapped in guilt, shame, and depression, for when we do, we can not receive grace and are still entrapped.

I want to be very, very clear here: when we mess up, we will feel guilt and remorse. But when we go to God and ask forgiveness, our guilt and remorse can be given over to God. Then, we are able to receive grace and freedom. When we cannot let go of shame and continual guilt, we have not received the forgiveness God has given. 

And all of this has to do with perfection because our call is to be molded and shaped by Christ. Our destination is the journey with Christ. We have arrived. While we still wait for future rewards, the King is alive in you as you read this and is making all things new in you. 

I can assure you that you will mess up and you will not be perfect, even though you want to be.

Our perfection comes over time. It grows as we grow in Jesus… and it is fully realized when we get to Heaven.

That’s why we shouldn’t strive for perfection. Instead, we should seek Christ, the one who actually makes us perfect.

When we inevitably mess up and fall short, we know that we have a God who, while we were still sinners, came into our mess and saved us from destruction (Romans 5:8). 

We don’t make it our goal to sin, but when we do trip up, our God is willing and ready to repair the wounds and make you whole. 

We will fail – all humans will fail. But Christ never will. He is the one who makes us more perfect every day that we turn to Him.

Making It Stick – Questions

How did it initially make you feel to read Jesus’ words “be perfect?” What emotions did that raise in you? 

After asking for forgiveness from God do you struggle to move forward personally? Do you find you struggle with guilt and shame when you have messed up?

Reread Philippians 3:13. How does it make you feel to know that Paul the Apostle himself didn’t feel that he had obtained perfection?

What would it look like for you to grow in perfection in Christ while holding the tension that goal is only achievable in Heaven?

Section 3

Colossians 3:10

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. (NLT)

Many experts in change and transformation, from psychologists to nutritionists, believe that it takes around 66 days to fully enact changes in our lives. 

This means that when we set out to impart new, healthy changes to our lives, we should probably expect there to be some personal stretching and difficulties for at least a couple of months as we adapt to our new lifestyle. 

While it’s easy to think about the challenges in starting a new diet, or cultivating a new routine of cleaning, or breaking bad patterns in relationships…we often fail to apply the same concept to our spiritual lives.

In our faith, we tend to look at it as though either, “we get it or we don’t.”

In Colossians 3:10, Paul urges to put on our new nature…not instantly be transformed in a split second.

But what does Paul mean by calling us to “put on your new nature?”

For starters, we are disciples of Jesus – we are following Him, learning to become more like Him every day. 

But Jesus’ way of life is radically different than the innate response in life that the sin-world has equipped us to have. Human beings are survivors, naturally ingrained with self-protection instincts.

So, it is ever-so-important to heed to Paul’s words in Colossians, for as followers of Jesus, we no longer have to look out for self alone. No, we now have the King of kings walking with us, providing for us, ensuring we survive and thrive. 

But our natural self (which again, is our sin-nature) is tricky and sometimes hard to see. It is like a skin over our bodies that is tightly bound, and hard to detect because it is so ingrained into who we are and how we respond.

The more time we spend with God, the less powerful our sin nature is.

It is through God that we find ourselves with an option for a new way of living, a new life. 

The problem is when we confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, but still choose ourselves over all else. That’s when we’re really not allowing God to shape us and mold us. We are not allowing Him to create a new nature in us.

Our model for life is Jesus Christ, it is one of the reasons He came to this world, not only to save us but to show us what it looks like to walk with God.

And our other great example of this is Paul, who fully embraced the work of the Holy Spirit in his life, and is the great explainer of the Gospel to the early church after Christ’s death. 

Paul is an excellent example of putting on a new nature because He persecuted so many Christians before he himself became one.

Paul explains in detail what sin-nature is verses the Spirit-nature in Galatians 5:16-26. I encourage you to slowly and carefully read this passage, and invite God to speak to your heart as you prayerfully read. 

Galatians 5:16-26

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

In concluding this section, I ask you to sit for a moment in Paul’s words in Galatians. 

What comes to your mind as you read this passage? I encourage you to not leap to spaces of judgment, either for yourself or others, but instead see the picture of wholeness and fulfillment that God wants for us through a Spirit-led life. 

How do you see a Spirit-led life as the antidote to the world of sin around us? Does the Spirit-led life feel enticing to you, and do you understand how it is the core of how Jesus wants to transform and change our inner being?

As you reflect on this passage, I also encourage you to remain prayerful, inviting God again and again into your time. Speak with Him about the “new nature” He has in store for you and how it might develop in your world day by day.

Making It Stick-Questions

• What does the “new nature” Paul speaks of in your life? How have you seen it?
• Where are the areas in your own life that you’d like to see this “new nature” grow and flourish?
• What were some key reflections from your time spent with Galatians 5:16-26?
• What are your biggest challenges to living in a Spirit-led life? Where do you anticipate being tripped up most easily?
  

Section 4

Colossians 2:7

Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. (NLT)

Matthew 7:24

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. (NLT)

Strong and thriving plants have similarly robust and healthy roots. They are well-nourished with the right amount of food, soil, and hydration. And all plants do well when grown in the right atmosphere and conditions that enable them to thrive.

There is a lot of imagery in the Bible that compares God’s followers to plants. In particular, Jesus uses this analogy extensively in John 15, where He talks about what it looks like to be a healthy follower bearing fruit while connected to His vine. 

Apart from Christ there really is no growth, no health, no change.

As followers of Jesus, we must continually choose to seek after Him in our thoughts, in our hearts, and in our actions. This is how we are transformed into His image more and more. This is how we build strong and healthy roots.

This transformation is so much more than church attendance, as I’m sure you know. Our call is to be in an actively involved relationship with Jesus. But the external results of this internal transformation can be seen in our actions, words, and deeds.

Outward appearances of faith are just a small fraction of the whole picture, for God is always with us, abiding in us through the Holy Spirit. We must come to terms with the Spirit’s presence with us more and more in our lives, because the more we do, the greater we grow and create space and room for God in our lives.

The inner workings of your relationship with God is the secret sauce of a true believer – the relentless pursuer of Christ.

She is a person who knows where her strength, identity, and purpose comes from. When she is in doubt, she runs internally to the Lord. Her heart is one that is on fire for God and is always searching for more of His presence in her life.

Our call is to be with Christ and to be obedient to where He leads.

Creating an internal palace, a sanctuary inside of us where we recognize God’s presence with us, is where you will thrive. This is what makes your faith unshakable. This is how you grow deep roots and have a firm foundation. 

The more you invest in your relationship with Jesus, the more abundant your life will become. Our time with God is invaluable. The more we worship Him, talk to Him, share our love of Him to others, and learn about Him, the more we are transformed.  

However, and this is the really tricky part, the effects of our time with God often go unnoticed to us. It’s because God often works in the stillness and quietness… and on His own timetable. 

One way to notice the fruit of your time with God is to look at your internal status – how you feel, how you respond – as a barometer. Look to how much peace or joy or self-control is developing in you. These fruit are only truly grown by God. Look to Galatians 5:22, the Fruit of the Spirit, as a cleansing agent to help you see how God is making you more into His image.

Change is a slow process because becoming like Jesus is against every natural, sinful fiber in our beings.

The more we learn to let go of our way of doing things and give way to letting God be in control and following His call, the more freedom we obtain. The more Fruit of the Spirit we will bear. The firmer our foundation will be. 

A firm foundation doesn’t happen overnight. And even when you find yourself on solid ground, fissures will form without continual maintenance, just like the cracks in every old sidewalk. 

It’s an ongoing process – it never stops. It really is a journey.

The only way we stay strong and become more like Jesus is to spend more time internally with Jesus. But the good news is that we can work on that internal relationship anytime and anywhere because God is always with us.

Start making it a habit to spend more time with God internally than you already do: in the supermarket, on a drive to work, while waiting in line, and walking in the park. The more you tap into your relationship, the more it will grow and the more it will become stronger. 

We are walking with an invisible God, a very real and powerful God, but nevertheless we cannot physically see Him. We must train ourselves to remember He is always with us and He loves us just as we are and not as we are supposed to be. 

The journey is the destination – but thankfully, God already indwells in you!

Making It Stick – Questions

• Like watching a plant grow, do you find that it nearly impossible to see changes in your spiritual life happening in real-time?
• Have you ever tried to spend time internally with God? If so, what has it been like?
• What challenges currently exist that might stand in the way of building a stronger inner sanctuary where you can retreat with God? What distractions might you encounter? 
• Where do you feel your roots of faith have grown deepest thus far in your journey? Examples might be faithfulness in worship, service and mission, dedication to Bible study, and so forth. Where would you like to grow?