What’s on your
Christmas list this year? Did you or someone you know set up the tent to wait
outside Best Buy to be the first in line to get the latest TV? I have one thing
on my Christmas list. The best gift anyone can give me is to tell me they told
someone else about Jesus Christ as Savior. But, at the same time I know God’s Christmas
list has two things. One is to love HIM with our whole heart, soul, mind, and
strength and the other is to LOVE EACH OTHER. It seems all we get is trouble
and stress and frustration. What does God get? Does he get our best? Or does He
get what’s left over?
Celebrate
Christmas the way God celebrates Christmas. Angels declared, “Glory to God in
the Highest and on earth, peace.” That would be great wouldn’t it? That’s how
God celebrated. God had a Christmas party and the Angels came to sing! But
instead of praising and thanking we say, “What more can you do for me?” and the
problems start to show up; the bills, the family fights. Where’s the peace?
I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this: There's
no such thing as a trouble-free life. Yet there is something inside each
one of us that expects things to go smoothly in whatever we do. This would
include our “Christmas” celebration. We save, we plan, we make every effort and
we don’t want any “bumps in the road” that disrupt us on our way to our goal.
In His perfect all-knowing mind, God says that these “speed bumps” are normal
and will be used to draw us closer to him if we stay focused on Him. He wants
us to slow down a bit even now, at Christmas, and give Him a chance to
celebrate.
There are even
those who think that when a person becomes a Christian, God removes the struggles
from their life. It's not long before
disappointment sets in, as they discover that instead of less trouble, they may
have more. This could be because God is in the process of cleansing and
changing old attitudes and habits that do not fit in a believer's life.
We all want success in what we do. True success is not to be measured in terms
of what we can do or not do. Success is not measured in what other can see us doing.
True success is how God reveals Himself through us to others.
We are the redeemed
sons and daughters of God. We belong to Him. He is our Lord and Savior. He
redeemed us by His blood. He has given
us all a trust - a work. The most basic one is the great commission - to share
the Gospel. All of us have different calling. Some called to be pastors, some
teachers, some evangelists. Not everyone can do these jobs, but we all have
something to do. Whatever it is God calls us to do, it is God’s work and we are
his servants.
For example, God
prepared Paul to give his entire life to serve Christ. He started out as a
Jewish religious leader seeking to kill Christ-followers. He met Jesus and went
on to establish and encourage many churches, answer difficult theological
questions, and write many doctrinal truths of the Bible. Yet his sufferings
exceed anything most of us have endured. It seems unfair of God to let Paul go
through so much hardship when Paul was obeying God’s plan. But it was the
suffering that shaped and prepared him to be such an effective servant of
Christ. Without it, he would not have developed the close relationship he had
with God or been used so mightily.
What is on Paul’s
Christmas list? Maybe it is “Less of me, More of Christ?” Maybe he wants just
one more day to share the Gospel? Perhaps it is one more person to pick up the
Gospel and bring it to the world. Possibly
he would want one more day to tell one more person about Jesus.
Paul faced
trouble every step of his life and all because it is more joyful to endure and
serve than to retreat and have a pity party for ourselves. Paul said in 1
Corinthians 4 that when people curse him, he will bless them. Because that’s
what Jesus would do. And when we choose to do that, God celebrates! When people
want to beat him up, he will just quietly pray for them. Because that’s what
Jesus would do. And when people would insult the name of Jesus, he would speak
kindly to them because that’s what Jesus would do. When we decide to let our actions become the
actions Jesus would do, God celebrates
Christmas.
I don't assume to
know the struggles anyone is experiencing right now, or what anyone has
experienced in the past. But I can say with confidence that God can use it to
draw you to Himself. The Gift of Christmas is not the TV from Best Buy. What if
the last one is given away to the person in front of you in line?
Every difficulty
demands a choice. That’s the gift. You can waste your suffering and be
miserable, or you can let the Lord use it to change your attitude and prepare you
to become His valuable and effective servant.