Hope For The New Year - Luke 14:11

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” - Luke 14:11

    Another year has come and gone. Again we have witnessed the angst, the wrath, the evil, and the hopelessness of mankind. We continue to filibuster upon things which we cannot control whether by coercion, legislation, or threat and we wonder how man has fallen into such a hapless state. And all the while we have already answered our own riddle - man IS fallen! “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned . . .” - Romans 5:12.
    The symptoms of man’s fallenness are apparent all around us and far too numerous to list. However, the precursor to all these hindrances relay on one common denominator; the human sin of pride. It is pride that separates a devote man from the secular man. It is pride that demands, cajoles, lies, steals, threaten,  fights, murders, rapes, and every other heinous sin imaginable. “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” - James 4:2-3.  But none of this has come upon us unsuspectedly. We have been guilty of such behavior since the beginning of time and are guilty of it now. “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God . . .” - 2 Timothy 3:1-4.
    Take a look back at the year. Review it and what we’ve seen and heard whether from Washington DC or Hollywood or within our own homes! Pride is rampant in all its ugliness and God is watching and waiting for His time. “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” - Isaiah 13:11.
    Whether we are star athletes, Oscar-winning actors, Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, politicians, TV celebrities, or simply common men and women - pride precedes us along with our sins. But this year, this New Year, our lives need not be a mere repetition of our previous years. To change the sinful patterns of the past we need merely do two things: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”  - Philippians 2:3.  And, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” - James 4:10.   
    This is what God wants. This is what God expects. This can be the hope for the New Year - “. . . if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” - 2 Chronicles 7:14. Let this be the year we recognize God as our Lord . . . and Savior!