The year 2013 will not go down in my memory as one of the happiest. It was a year of attacks on Americans' most basic liberties, cultural decay unimaginable just a few short years ago and outright rebellion against God by government and other powerful forces.

So why am I so happy this New Year's Eve? Why am I popping the champagne corks and throwing streamers around the house? Why am I so giddy? Is it because things can't get any worse? Absolutely not. In fact, things can get much worse.

I would expect the economy to be mired in stagnation at best in 2014. It could fall apart, as even some Wall Street insiders are warning openly. Expect the federal government to serve everyone but U.S. citizens this coming year — promoting amnesty for illegal aliens, doing everything in its power to make sure your travel is restricted by rising gas prices, ensuring your ability to protect yourself and your family is restricted by making firearms and ammunition more expensive and harder to get, and continuing its divide-and-conquer strategy by promoting special interests as opposed to the general welfare.

In short, look for more misery, as corrupt and unaccountable government lights brushfires designed to limit freedom.

In the new year, for instance, Washington takes away your light bulb choice — mandating the elimination of perfectly good and reasonably priced incandescents with more expensive and dangerously toxic lighting. Your health care choices have already shriveled, and costs have skyrocketed for those who were responsibly providing for their own families.

Government is doing its best to drive up energy prices, too — the lifeblood of a vibrant economy. The excuse is catastrophic, man-made climate change, a lie as big as "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

To perpetuate frauds like this requires a citizenry unable to distinguish right from wrong and truth from fiction, so you can be sure the systematic dumbing down of the populace will continue.

So, again, why am I happy today?

Well, this is the bad news. But today is not a day for bad news. Today is a day to look at the opportunities before us — to discover the silver lining in those foreboding dark clouds on the political horizon.

Here's the good news: God is in control. He has provided us with a clear prescription for turning things around. Though it's not through politics, I encourage everyone to engage in the political opportunities before us in 2014.

It may well be that the midterm election results represent a very positive development. But the long-term trends are still disconcerting. Unlike many of you reading this column today, I am not fearful about the attacks on liberty that are assuredly ahead of us. I see them as a necessary evil for a reawakening of the American public. Nothing short of what is coming could possibly get us back on track.

I'm not telling you to sit back and relax. I'm advising you to hunker down for spiritual battle. It's not going to be easy. But there is an end in sight.

Meditate on this verse during your New Year celebrations. Commit it to memory: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

There is not a doubt in my mind that if believers follow this simple prescription in 2014, miracles will abound next year. America will be revived and restored. Is it too much to ask for those called by His name to repent and humble themselves before God?

I wouldn't think so. It is with this good news that I wish you a very happy new year.

To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.