By Rev Daniel Yaw

Introduction
A new year is dawning as we come to the end of 2024.  We welcome a new year.  We welcome the latest and I pray that it will be something better.
We often wish each other a better day, a better week, or a better year ahead. We sincerely do this because we hope for the best. Sometimes, our wishes come true, and sometimes, they don’t.
As we enter the new year, we celebrate also a new theme for the church – “Chosen, Changed, and Convey.”  The theme tells us that we are first privileged to be chosen by God to be his children – sons and daughters of God.  Then it tells us of the power of God in our lives in the changes that are taking place in our hearts and our lives, as we submit ourselves to His working.  Finally, it tells us that our responsibility and is to convey the wonderful things that God has done. 
As we enter this new year, we closed last year with something that we are all familiar with – a new resolution for the year.  However, before we even do that, let us consider what God has in store for us in our lives, as we dwell on the new theme.
I would like to share with all of us a better promise that God has given us.  It is stated in Hebrews 8:10b, "I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
How is my relationship with God special today?  Looking at the verse above, I reflected with thanksgiving in my heart that knowing our God has become special – one that we will know.  It is internally planted and externally known.
This new thing that God has to offer to us is indeed different and better compared to the Old Testament.

The Past = a covenant external
God said here in Hebrews that he is doing away with the old covenant and replacing it with the new.  What are the old and the new then?  If you noticed that when the old covenant was given, it was held in fear.  The people appealed to Moses that he should go and speak with God as they would not want to for fear of death.  God is to be distanced from them.  But all those are going to be changed.
The breaking of the covenant means that God will forsake them as well as obedience brings blessings while disobedience brings curses.  That too is going to change.

The Present = a covenant internal
God said that He will put the law in our hearts and God will be our God.  What is different in the present is the dynamic and vitality of our relationship with God. 
The law will be put in our hearts - with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit will enable us to love God and be obedient to him.
The present promise is that God will be our God and we are his children. A promise that God will not leave us nor forsake us.  The sense of belonging is pronounced clearly that we shall be God’s people – belonging to God, precious in His sight.  God will seek all to protect and preserve His people who are made up of you and me.  Different as we may be, yet similar in our redemption – that we all know God.
This present promise gives us a push that we come before God with confidence and faith that God is our God today.
In verse 11, the writer tells us that we need not even tell each other to “know God” because we all do know him.

Conclusion
May the year 2025 be a year to reflect our position in Christ – that He is our God and we are His people.  May it be a year of readiness to live a life of obedience to His will.  May it be a year of sweet relationship with God, in humility and in trust.  Blessed new year.