I love the New Year... a chance to review my life, to identify those things which need to change, to set new goals and to start afresh. I don't set myself any 'New Year's resolutions' because they get broken in no time, but I do seek to spend time with the Lord, asking Him to speak into my life in order to equip me for the year ahead.

It isn't at all surprising that the country's most popular New Year's resolution is to lose weight and/or become more healthy. In line with this we see the Slimming Clubs embarking on recruitment campaigns and offering all sorts of incentives to draw people in. Perhaps you have considered joining one yourself!

But if you can remember your past experiences of following conventional diets.... the rules, performance-based goals, the costs, the initial success followed by inevitable let-down and perceived failure, then maybe you should consider looking out your copy of 'How to Stop Dieting and Start Living', dusting it down and giving it another read.

Jesus loved to give people a new start. When he was confronted by needy people whose present condition was somehow tied up with a sinful past he brought cleansing and healing and sent them off with the words 'Go, and sin no more.' There was no judgement or condemnation, no tut-tutting, no conditions, just grace, grace and more grace.

Oh how we need this grace, not least because when it comes to our relationship with food we have so often 'done those things which we ought not to have done and left undone those things which we ought to have done' (from the General Confession in the Anglican liturgy)

So this new year let me encourage you to spend time letting the Holy spirit speak to your heart, showing you afresh His wonderful purpose for your life and those things which he needs to address in order for those purposes to be fulfilled. Where his instruction involves changes in your eating behaviour, embrace it, knowing that God is working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your desire to change comes ultimately from Him and He is the One who is going to make it happen.

Praise God for New Beginnings! Happy New Year to you all.