Happy New Year

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 6
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What a cheerful sound that has! We say it to one another as though the very wish could make it so, could guarantee a new year that will be happier, healthier, more prosperous than the last.
Is that the way the new year looks to you?
In a recent newspaper survey in Japan they asked young people what color they thought their future would be. In spite of all the material prosperity in post-war Japan, most of them answered, "Gray!"
A look at the daily news would certainly encourage a gray outlook—gray, that is, where it isn't totally black! Is this the way God meant things to be?
No! When God created man He placed him in beautiful surroundings, provided for his every need and gave him "dominion... over all the earth."
What happened? We know the story. Adam and Eve listened to the tempter instead of to what God said, and you could say that they "sold out" to Satan.
Would we have done differently? Would we have chosen to walk with God in the garden "in the cool of the day," or would we have been sampling the forbidden fruit instead? When the Lord Jesus was here on earth and His own people gave Him up to be crucified, crying, "We have no king but Caesar," they were speaking for all mankind in every age. In effect, they said: "WE WILL NOT HAVE THIS MAN TO REIGN OVER US!"
Someone must reign; who will it be?
The Bible speaks of Satan as "the God of this world": "the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ... should shine unto them." 2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4).
No wonder things look gray! And worse than that, someday even the gray will end in "the blackness of darkness forever" for all those who have not come to the Lord Jesus who is both light and life.
That was not God's plan for man. He is "patient and long-suffering, not willing that any should perish." He "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
"As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12).
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." 1 John 3:11Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (1 John 3:1). Shouldn't a child of God be happy? And can there be true happiness for anyone who knows he is not a child of God?
May your new year be a very happy one!