Sinclair Ferguson

And our eyes are opened to it by the grace of Jesus Christ.

That's why the hymn writer Anna Laetitia Waring once wrote, something lives in every hue that Christless eyes have never seen.

You know, as Christians, we certainly don't know everything.

But the great thing is we know something about everything.

We know that it's been made by God.

We know that we're living in his world.

We've been thinking this week in our podcast about the new year, and we've talked about making a personal covenant with the Lord.

We've thought about a hymn that encourages us, and yesterday we thought about a text that will guide us.

But sometimes, as I hinted yesterday, I have a little problem at this time of the year.

What do I say to people when I meet them for the first time?

I mean, what words should I use?

Maybe you think that's a little bit dark and obsessive-compulsive, but here's the issue.

When I was a young Christian, I was taught that God was more interested in my holiness than He was in my happiness.

And I thought it would seem very strange if I started wishing people, have a holy new year.

I actually think that even Christians might have cooled off to me if I'd greeted them in that way.

But there's another thing.

You could wish someone a happy new year and then later in the year regret that you'd ever said it because their life had been so filled with unhappiness.

So with thoughts like that, you can understand how I sometimes puzzle over what adjective do I use when I greet people at the beginning of the new year.

And so I usually end up saying something like, I hope you have a blessed and happy new year.

But you know, maybe my conscience is too tender because the Bible does speak about us being happy.