July 5

Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of all kinds will grow. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. Each month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be used for food and their leaves for healing. — Ezek 47:12 BSB

There is always something new in the things of God. You might read a passage from the Bible many times, but suddenly, one day, a flash of light reveals something fresh and precious in it. It feels new—received, felt, and fed upon as if you’d never seen it before. It’s as though, until that moment, the passage held nothing for you. This is true for prayer and for hearing the Word, too. Perhaps your soul has been trapped in distress, bondage, and misery for months, barely able to sense any spiritual life. But under the preaching of the Word, God might drop something into your heart that brings warmth, life, and feeling. How new it feels! It’s as if you’d never heard it before. Your eyes seem newly opened to see new things, your ears newly opened to hear them, and your heart newly opened to receive them. This is how God fulfills his promise: “He who sits on the throne says, Behold, I make all things new!” and “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.”