"Happy" Holidays
Well, it’s time. The school year for the kids has been in motion for some time now and probably feels like a solid part of our routine. Unlike last year, the warm weather has finally gone. The leaves are changing. The pumpkins outside are rotting. Soon the Halloween costumes and candy will be put away just in time for the “most” wonderful time of the year.
THE HOLIDAYS!
Even though Thanksgiving kicks off our holiday season in the latter half of the month, we all know that preparations for everything begin at the start of November. The stores certainly know it, don’t they? It’s time to buy gifts. Time to buy the decorations. Time to buy the turkeys. Time to make plans and organize family get-togethers.
For some, this is a time to flourish. “It’s the best time of the year!” they say. For others, this time is absolutely dreaded. For some, the holidays are the most challenging part of the year, when big, fear-inducing questions come up. How am I going to afford all of this? Do I really have to hang out with that relative? What am I going to get my spouse? How are we going to get together with everyone and still have time for our family, too?
Yes, while these questions can bring on fear, I’m also thankful that the first holiday of the season is the one thing that could set the tone for the rest of the season. If we can set our focus on this one thing, I think it might help carry us through these next two months: Thanksgiving.
It might sound cliché, but I believe there is always something to be grateful for. I also know how hard it can be to remember to be grateful. Finding something to be grateful for is like a skill or a muscle. It needs to be part of our focus and daily disciplines, and we need to work it out every day. We have to rep it, every day. That’s how our muscles get stronger, and that’s how we get better at remembering to be thankful for the lives God has given us.
Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday where we eat too much turkey, chug too much gravy (just me?), and watch too much football. While the surplus of ingestion is always present, I wonder how this holiday season would turn out if we treated this time of physical engorgement as a time to ingest “too much” of God’s Word as well.
It’s one thing to say you’re thankful for certain things, but it’s another to actually show that you’re thankful. What’s at the top of your list of things you’re thankful for? Who’s given you those things? How can you show that person you’re thankful?
I’m hoping God is somewhere on that list. How can we show God that we’re thankful? Not because He needs it, but because He has given us so much. What’s our response to His generosity?
I want to challenge all of us to ask those questions, seek answers through prayer, and respond. At the end of the day, this season is about the birth of Jesus. The greatest gift of all.
Let’s set our eyes on Him and focus on the fact that He loves us, He is for us, and He will never forsake us. If we are truly filled with gratitude, if we stay persistent and consistent in prayer, and if we find a way to respond to God and His people during this season, maybe we’ll actually have a HAPPY holiday season.
Let us prepare for His arrival.
Love you all! God Bless!
THE HOLIDAYS!
Even though Thanksgiving kicks off our holiday season in the latter half of the month, we all know that preparations for everything begin at the start of November. The stores certainly know it, don’t they? It’s time to buy gifts. Time to buy the decorations. Time to buy the turkeys. Time to make plans and organize family get-togethers.
For some, this is a time to flourish. “It’s the best time of the year!” they say. For others, this time is absolutely dreaded. For some, the holidays are the most challenging part of the year, when big, fear-inducing questions come up. How am I going to afford all of this? Do I really have to hang out with that relative? What am I going to get my spouse? How are we going to get together with everyone and still have time for our family, too?
Yes, while these questions can bring on fear, I’m also thankful that the first holiday of the season is the one thing that could set the tone for the rest of the season. If we can set our focus on this one thing, I think it might help carry us through these next two months: Thanksgiving.
It might sound cliché, but I believe there is always something to be grateful for. I also know how hard it can be to remember to be grateful. Finding something to be grateful for is like a skill or a muscle. It needs to be part of our focus and daily disciplines, and we need to work it out every day. We have to rep it, every day. That’s how our muscles get stronger, and that’s how we get better at remembering to be thankful for the lives God has given us.
Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday where we eat too much turkey, chug too much gravy (just me?), and watch too much football. While the surplus of ingestion is always present, I wonder how this holiday season would turn out if we treated this time of physical engorgement as a time to ingest “too much” of God’s Word as well.
It’s one thing to say you’re thankful for certain things, but it’s another to actually show that you’re thankful. What’s at the top of your list of things you’re thankful for? Who’s given you those things? How can you show that person you’re thankful?
I’m hoping God is somewhere on that list. How can we show God that we’re thankful? Not because He needs it, but because He has given us so much. What’s our response to His generosity?
I want to challenge all of us to ask those questions, seek answers through prayer, and respond. At the end of the day, this season is about the birth of Jesus. The greatest gift of all.
Let’s set our eyes on Him and focus on the fact that He loves us, He is for us, and He will never forsake us. If we are truly filled with gratitude, if we stay persistent and consistent in prayer, and if we find a way to respond to God and His people during this season, maybe we’ll actually have a HAPPY holiday season.
Let us prepare for His arrival.
Love you all! God Bless!
Bible Verses to Read Through, Pray Through, and Meditate on This Month
Ask:
“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” // Luke 11:9–10
Prepare:
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.” // Proverbs 6:6–8
“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” // Luke 14:28
Respond:
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” // James 1:22–25
“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” // Luke 11:9–10
Prepare:
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.” // Proverbs 6:6–8
“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” // Luke 14:28
Respond:
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” // James 1:22–25
Posted in Bible Devotionals
No Comments