As each New Year arrives it is our hope, by the good providence of God, that we shall have a better and more prosperous year than the previous year. It is a custom of many to make New Year's resolutions with good intentions of keeping them, as though that will bring greater happiness in the coming new year. While it is commendable to make resolutions to cease bad behavior and to endeavor to improve our conduct and character, we know from Scripture "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41). We need God's grace to enable us more and more to live according to His will. The Apostle Paul said, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). As we understand God's will for our lives from His Word, we must cast ourselves completely upon His grace to cease bad behavior and to endeavor to be more like Christ in our conduct and character.

In the book of Micah, chapter six, Judah, the Southern kingdom of Israel, was suffering affliction from the chastening hand of the Lord. They were searching what they might do to please God, because their sins had brought divine judgment upon them. In Micah 6:6-7, the people of Judah were considering how they might change their ways in order to please God, asking, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" The prophet in Micah 6:8 reminds Judah how the prophets had already revealed God's will for them saying, "He hath shewed thee, O man (God speaks to Judah as one man), what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Our best resolution is to live according to the Word which the Lord requires of us by His grace.

At the beginning of a New Year our thoughts naturally turn to the future. Except for a few politicians who try to paint an optimistic future, the fact is that our country has painted itself into a corner. They're using lots of green paint, but when it dries, it mysteriously turns bright red. There is an indebtedness that is beyond the average person to comprehend-trillions. A trillion is a million times a million. One trillion seconds on our clocks add up to 31,546 years!

So what is the real U.S. national debt and what is it made up of? Here's an illustration that puts it into perspective, showing the current rising debt of more than 12 trillion dollars plus the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and retirement benefits for civilian and military personnel. This is the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren-a debt of $184,000 for every man, woman, and child in America or $483,000 for every household in the United States (from Big Red internet site).

If that isn't depressing enough, many of our families are suffering with job losses, pay reductions, rising prices, and mortgages way over the worth of their property. Much of it is out of our control. I know, that's a terribly gloomy picture for the future. This is what men in power do. After the period of the judges, God warned the Israelites about the mistake of wanting an earthly ruler. He defined all the sacrifices the people would have to make and added, "And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day" (1 Sam. 8:18). But Israel insisted, and God gave them a king. The rest is history, a sad and continuing history. This is not about politics. It is about the fallen and selfish nature of man himself.