Christmas is meant to pull us closer to His purpose on this earth, and grow our knowledge of our own salvation through His birth, life, death, and ascension into heaven. Sadly, many of our hearts will be overtaken by the need to give presents, and measure up the commercialized side of Christmas. For those who have not saved money, the panic and scrambling sets in to meet expectations that were never meant to take the center place of our hearts as Advent begins and carols are sung.
There will be disappointed faces on Christmas morning because of the empty space under their Christmas tree. But that isn’t the depressing part of that reality. Failing to save money for Christmas might lend the best opportunity to leave our hearts wide open for the real spirit of Christmas to usher peace and fulfillment into our hearts. Presents don’t fill our hearts with peace—only the presence of Jesus can do that.
Father,
Praise You for Christmas! It’s exciting to open gifts with loved ones and celebrate the holiday season with traditional outings and cookie-making parties. You gave us life so that we could live it to the full, and the celebratory nature of the holiday season gives us every opportunity to tap into our Godgiven ability to rejoice and be glad! In Your omnipotence, You see past the value of money, but have given us guidelines to follow lest we trip and fall into despair over it. For some this Christmas, mistakes and missteps have yielded no gains to make for a reason to celebrate. Still, more have fallen upon hard times to no fault of their own.
We live in a fallen world, full of sin that is the root of all pain, sickness, and suffering. Fair or not, there will be some suffering endured this Christmas, and we ask You, Father of miracles, to come upon those that endure injustice and pull them out into Your light. We ask forgiveness for financial mistakes and irresponsible spending habits. As some of us suffer the consequences of our own poor choices, empty-handed recipients look to us and wonder what they’ve done wrong. Father, bless those children whose parents cannot provide the kind of Christmas that they see on TV and their friends talk about at school. Prop up their parents and bond them as a family in search of You, who is the One who can heal and restore their lives without gifts.
Thank You for life and health, and for the ability to look back and realize that we’ve made a mistake in failing to save for special celebrations such as this. Thank You for giving us a chance to change. In a world surrounded by war, famine, and injustice, we live in a country that is predominately free. For that, we are extremely blessed. Thank You for the roof over our heads and the food on our tables. Thank You for the schools we are able to attend and the church communities who hold their doors wide open for us every Sunday.
This Christmas, though we have failed to be able to provide presents under the tree in bulk, we are overflowing with grateful hearts at the life we have been blessed to live right where we are. Even in the midst of poor planning and bad investments, frivolous spending and wracked-up debt, You are blessing us, still. How great You are, Lord!
Bless us with the strength and discipline we need to turn from our sins, and repent into new versions of ourselves. Jesus, we want hearts like Yours. Perhaps having nothing to give looks a lot different to us than it does to You. You gave Your life so that we could live ours. Maybe we can’t give out a lot of presents this year, but perhaps we can dig a little deeper into our own face value to give on a deeper, more Christ-like level. Help us find ways to love others in Your honor this Christmas, presents or not.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Photo credit: ©Thinkstock/tommaso79
Meg encourages others to seek Him first through her life as a stay-at-home mom, career as a freelance writer, teaching Emoti-moms Weekly Bible Study, and leading the kids worship teams at her local church. She resides in a small, Northern lake town with her husband of ten years, two daughters, and their Golden-doodle. Meg writes about everyday life within the love of Christ on her blog, http://sunnyand80.org.