Christmas isn’t Christmas till it happens in your heart
Somewhere, deep inside you, is where Christmas really starts
So, give your heart to Jesus, you’ll discover when you do
That it’s Christmas, really Christmas for you.
Jesus brings warmth like a winter fire, a light like a candles glow
He’s waiting now to come inside, like He did so long ago
Jesus brings gifts of truth and life and makes them bloom and grow
So welcome Him with a song of joy, and when He comes you’ll know
That Christmas isn’t Christmas till it happens in your heart
Somewhere, deep inside you, is where Christmas really starts
So, give your heart to Jesus, you’ll discover when you do
That it’s Christmas, really Christmas
Christmas, really Christmas
Christmas, really Christmas for you
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
A Christmas Spirit
It’s Christmas Eve. Christmas is almost here. The tree is up, the lights are lit. Silent Night is playing on the radio. Presents are under the tree. I’ll be surrounded by smiling family in just a few hours. It seems that my heart should be overflowing with Christmas Spirit. But, it’s not.
“Why?” You may ask. “You seem to have all the ingredients of a warm and cuddly Christmas.” Well, if life were a Christmas special, I would say, “Yes, I do seem to. I must just be a helpless state of patheticness.” If life were a Charlie Brown Christmas special, I would say “Well, I think the extensive amount of commercialism surrounding the celebration of Christ’s birth is bringing me down.” But life is neither, and neither of those answers are true for me this year.
Truth is, the things that Christmas brings such as a tree and music and presents, normally lighten my spirit, and the commercialism doesn’t bring me down or keep me from celebrating the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ. This year, there’s something else bothering me, there’s something else keeping me from having a Christmas Spirit and I fear that I can blame it on no one, but myself.
Have you noticed that we, as people, want a lot of things, and we want them a lot. But, once we receive what we’ve been pining for, it quickly becomes unimportant. It doesn’t satisfy us. We obviously would no longer feel desire for something we have already gained, but we should be feeling gratefulness at gaining something we wanted so badly, but instead we turn our unsatisfied hearts towards a new desire for something “new and better”, something that we hope will bring us happiness. This concept is illustrated well by a child during the Christmas season. Let’s say a child has been begging and begging for a MEGATRON 2THOUSAND! with lights and bells and whistles and the whole shebang. He wants that toy so bad, he pleads his parents to purchase it for him for months before Christmas and when Christmas morning finally arrives, he gets it! The squeals of joy coming from this child can be heard for blocks as he opens up his present, but a few short days, or even just hours later he’s no longer playing with it. He’s not excited. He’s not grateful and, by January 1st he wants the new MEGATRON 3THOUSAND!!!!!!! Even though most of us would tend to stray from identifying ourselves with that stereotypical child of Christmas, I must say that I can clearly see myself. I don’t desire a Megatron anythousand and my cycle of “Want. Get. Discard. Want. Etc…” may not be as evident, but it’s still there, and there in-lies my problem.
I, like the child, want things with feelings of incessant longing and desire. I strive to achieve satisfaction by acquiring things I think I want, things that I want to believe will make me happy. Sometimes I get them, sometimes I don’t. But even when I do, the satisfaction doesn’t last long and soon once again, I’m back to striving and longing for some other thing that I hope will bring my fulfillment.
Back to having a Christmas Spirit, A Christmas Spirit is a spirit, a human soul that is celebrating and is grateful for the gift God sent in his son and the salvation and forgiveness that he brought to us through his death and resurrection. It’s a soul that is worshiping through mouth, deed, and heart. It’s a soul that is given to God in appreciation for His gift and hence it’s a soul filled and satisfied with God’s joy.
Wait, stop. Did we just find something satisfying?
I think we did.
God’s joy is satisfying. And it’s free. God offered it to us when Jesus came to earth as our Savior. But just like any gift, it’s not yours until you accept it. To have God’s satisfying joy for yourself, you have to accept it. You have to accept His salvation from our sins. And when you accept His salvation and allow Him to guard your soul, He’ll make your winter spirit into a Christmas Spirit.
Here’s where my problem comes in, I have accepted God’s gift of salvation, I have been given God’s joy, but I have allowed myself to become distracted. Instead of embracing God’s joy, I’ve become distracted by my own selfishness. I’ve become distracted by things I want and desire. I’ve been pulled into a Christmas Oblivion of selfish ambitions and self-satisfaction. Like the child in the illustration became ungrateful for his present, I’ve become ungrateful for God’s amazing gift as I’ve allowed myself to become obsessed with wanting other things. My joy has become tarnished with the sin of my selfishness. My situation is expressed well my Paul’s words in Galatians 4:8-9
My Christmas Spirit might be in pretty bad shape right now, but it can be salvaged. Because it’s Christmas, and Christmas, like I’ve mentioned, is all about Christ and the gifts of forgiveness God gave us through Christ’s sacrifice. And God will forgive me and polish my joy up again, if I choose to give Him my soul once more instead of allowing my soul to be enslaved and controlled by my selfish wants and desires. A chapter later in Galatians 5:16 Paul speaks of how to beat the slavery he spoke of in chapter 4,
Well, that seems like a tidy little solution to my problem, but what does it mean to walk by the spirit? It means: To live a life of daily surrender. To daily come before God and surrender your soul, your life, your love to Him. To live a life of gratefulness for the gift God has given you and to be satisfied with His joy. To have a relationship with and walk with God.
So, today, Christmas Eve, I’m coming before God, laying down my soul, my life, my heart, and my selfish desires and asking Him to replace my cold winter spirit with a joyful Christmas Spirit. The gift of the baby King who lay in a manager has changed my life and given me true forgiveness for my sins. For that I am truly grateful. And that precious gift is truly all I need. So, that’s where I’ve found my Christmas Spirit.
Where are you finding yours?
“Why?” You may ask. “You seem to have all the ingredients of a warm and cuddly Christmas.” Well, if life were a Christmas special, I would say, “Yes, I do seem to. I must just be a helpless state of patheticness.” If life were a Charlie Brown Christmas special, I would say “Well, I think the extensive amount of commercialism surrounding the celebration of Christ’s birth is bringing me down.” But life is neither, and neither of those answers are true for me this year.
Truth is, the things that Christmas brings such as a tree and music and presents, normally lighten my spirit, and the commercialism doesn’t bring me down or keep me from celebrating the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ. This year, there’s something else bothering me, there’s something else keeping me from having a Christmas Spirit and I fear that I can blame it on no one, but myself.
Have you noticed that we, as people, want a lot of things, and we want them a lot. But, once we receive what we’ve been pining for, it quickly becomes unimportant. It doesn’t satisfy us. We obviously would no longer feel desire for something we have already gained, but we should be feeling gratefulness at gaining something we wanted so badly, but instead we turn our unsatisfied hearts towards a new desire for something “new and better”, something that we hope will bring us happiness. This concept is illustrated well by a child during the Christmas season. Let’s say a child has been begging and begging for a MEGATRON 2THOUSAND! with lights and bells and whistles and the whole shebang. He wants that toy so bad, he pleads his parents to purchase it for him for months before Christmas and when Christmas morning finally arrives, he gets it! The squeals of joy coming from this child can be heard for blocks as he opens up his present, but a few short days, or even just hours later he’s no longer playing with it. He’s not excited. He’s not grateful and, by January 1st he wants the new MEGATRON 3THOUSAND!!!!!!! Even though most of us would tend to stray from identifying ourselves with that stereotypical child of Christmas, I must say that I can clearly see myself. I don’t desire a Megatron anythousand and my cycle of “Want. Get. Discard. Want. Etc…” may not be as evident, but it’s still there, and there in-lies my problem.
I, like the child, want things with feelings of incessant longing and desire. I strive to achieve satisfaction by acquiring things I think I want, things that I want to believe will make me happy. Sometimes I get them, sometimes I don’t. But even when I do, the satisfaction doesn’t last long and soon once again, I’m back to striving and longing for some other thing that I hope will bring my fulfillment.
Back to having a Christmas Spirit, A Christmas Spirit is a spirit, a human soul that is celebrating and is grateful for the gift God sent in his son and the salvation and forgiveness that he brought to us through his death and resurrection. It’s a soul that is worshiping through mouth, deed, and heart. It’s a soul that is given to God in appreciation for His gift and hence it’s a soul filled and satisfied with God’s joy.
Wait, stop. Did we just find something satisfying?
I think we did.
God’s joy is satisfying. And it’s free. God offered it to us when Jesus came to earth as our Savior. But just like any gift, it’s not yours until you accept it. To have God’s satisfying joy for yourself, you have to accept it. You have to accept His salvation from our sins. And when you accept His salvation and allow Him to guard your soul, He’ll make your winter spirit into a Christmas Spirit.
Here’s where my problem comes in, I have accepted God’s gift of salvation, I have been given God’s joy, but I have allowed myself to become distracted. Instead of embracing God’s joy, I’ve become distracted by my own selfishness. I’ve become distracted by things I want and desire. I’ve been pulled into a Christmas Oblivion of selfish ambitions and self-satisfaction. Like the child in the illustration became ungrateful for his present, I’ve become ungrateful for God’s amazing gift as I’ve allowed myself to become obsessed with wanting other things. My joy has become tarnished with the sin of my selfishness. My situation is expressed well my Paul’s words in Galatians 4:8-9
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?"
My Christmas Spirit might be in pretty bad shape right now, but it can be salvaged. Because it’s Christmas, and Christmas, like I’ve mentioned, is all about Christ and the gifts of forgiveness God gave us through Christ’s sacrifice. And God will forgive me and polish my joy up again, if I choose to give Him my soul once more instead of allowing my soul to be enslaved and controlled by my selfish wants and desires. A chapter later in Galatians 5:16 Paul speaks of how to beat the slavery he spoke of in chapter 4,
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Well, that seems like a tidy little solution to my problem, but what does it mean to walk by the spirit? It means: To live a life of daily surrender. To daily come before God and surrender your soul, your life, your love to Him. To live a life of gratefulness for the gift God has given you and to be satisfied with His joy. To have a relationship with and walk with God.
So, today, Christmas Eve, I’m coming before God, laying down my soul, my life, my heart, and my selfish desires and asking Him to replace my cold winter spirit with a joyful Christmas Spirit. The gift of the baby King who lay in a manager has changed my life and given me true forgiveness for my sins. For that I am truly grateful. And that precious gift is truly all I need. So, that’s where I’ve found my Christmas Spirit.
Where are you finding yours?
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