It was a joy to be with our church family tonight in the last hours of 2014.  We came to the Lord’s table together and our hearts were turned toward the Lord Jesus and what He has done for needy sinners.  Sinners like me.

The end of another year brings reflection and remembrances.  The beginning of another lends itself to rededication’s and resolutions.  While there is nothing wrong with either, both must lead us to Christ.  As I look back on the last twelve months I am overwhelmed with my own failures.  The best of intentions and unfulfilled promises.  Sound familiar?

If you are not careful such thoughts can lead to morbid introspection and despair.

Here is a better thought: My Father is the same today as He was on January 1, 2014.  And He will be the same one thousand years from now!  He never changes.  The one thing greater than my unfaithfulness is His faithfulness.  The nearer a man gets to God the more He will say, “O wretched man that I am!”  But he will continue to say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24).

Augustus Toplady lived in the 1700’s.  He is most famous for his well-known hymn, Rock of Ages.  On December 31, 1767 he wrote in his private journal: “Upon a review of the past year, I desire to confess that my unfaithfulness has been exceeding great; my sins still greater; God’s mercies greater than both…My short-comings and my mid-doings, my unbelief and want of love, would sink me into the lowest hell, was not Jesus my righteousness and my Redeemer.”  And so it is on December 31, 2014.

The end of the year should lead to more than declarations to do better.  Tonight should be a time of true repentance.  Humility.  Brokenness.  The kind that brings us to the end of ourselves…and to Him.  Real repentance does not end with our sin.  It ushers us into the presence of a loving, gracious, wonderful Savior.  That is a good place to end the year – and to begin again.