As the New Year turns, people commonly look back with some remorse at opportunities missed or mistakes made in the past year, perhaps offenses committed, now regretted.  The Lord gives comfort through the prophet Isaiah:

“Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.  

“Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.

I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake,
And I will not remember your sins.                 Isaiah 43:18-19, 25

Thank Him that He casts your sins behind His back and separates them from you as far as the east is from the west.  (Isaiah 38:17, Psalm 103:12)  Humbly thank Him for the happy plan He has for you in this next year.

“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”       Jeremiah 29:11

Even better than that, He has a wonderful eternal plan for those who have trusted in Him:

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,  and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”  Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.  He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.                 Revelation 21:3-7

“Therefore comfort one another with these words.”         1 Thessalonians 4:18