Hey there friends! Merry CHRISTmas! I just wanted to share this with you as I have had some friends come to me, having "issues" with being ready for the holidays. As you all well know, since I have expressed it before..I am most definitely one of those people. I feel blessed for God to have possibly used me to share these devotions that I receive in the hopes that they help others as well. As the CHRISTmas holiday approaches for me..I feel worse. I am trying to focus on Christ's birth and life, but it feels as if satan is trying to creep in my heart and somehow he gets in just a little. I pray that he leaves me alone...leaves you alone...leaves all of us alone. I encourage you to sing Gods praise, and put on your armour as we are in a serious battle vs satan this time of year! WE WILL WIN!
Keep on going' on my friends! Love you and God Bless!~Amy
ps I do not know the author of this devotion...it isn't me...but as you know, I would post the author if I knew who it was. For some reason it wasn't posted in the email. Just wanted to make sure I was plagerizing anything!
Dreams At Christmas
We all dream at Christmas. We’ve been taught early on that this should be the happiest time of the year. What if it turns out to be the saddest?It’s the most painful feeling to carry, when you have a hole in your heart because of family tensions and fears. Meanwhile, everything screams,
Be of good cheer.
I woke up every morning that Christmas season, believing in miracles, waiting for everything to be alright. The situation got worse. So, I changed my prayer.
Please free me from this sadness, God. Make me alright.
As the 25th drew near, I hadn’t felt any better. I felt worse.
That Christmas Sunday, I sang the carols in tears.
How can I be joyful when the people I loved weren’t near? I was wracked with guilt because I couldn’t push away the sadness, like a dove failing to take flight in a cage.
As I mechanically stood there singing “O, Little Town of Bethlehem”, a lyric pierced through the haze. Even though I wasn’t ready for Christmas, Jesus was ready for me.
Our hopes and fears through all the years are met in Thee tonight…
In our fading hopes, Jesus invites us to come and receive Him. As we are.
Who Is Prepared
I’ve wondered why God arranged Mary’s due date around the time of a national census. Mary and Joseph didn’t have family and friends to help them with their new baby. No warm meals brought in or grandparents to relieve them from diaper duty. Joseph, the sole bread winner (most probably, a clueless new dad), had to escape with his newborn family to Egypt, to strike out a living with no contacts in a foreign land.God definitely could have chosen a better time and circumstance to bring His Baby into their lives.
I don’t know how much better their birth experience would’ve been back home either, with rumors flying about the baby’s origins, speculations surrounding why Joseph would still stick around. Maybe it would’ve been a quiet first Christmas for them too. Something that ought to be celebrated on rooftops might have turned into an event to keep on the lowdown.
They weren’t prepared, but God was.
As I cried my pillow wet that Christmas week, I wondered about this time next year. Will I feel normal again? Will I survive these changes in my life?
I didn’t know. But, I learned that I didn’t need to be okay.
I may be unprepared for what happens tomorrow.
But Jesus is here for me. Today.
“Today… a Savior has been bornfor you.” ~ Luke 2:11
True Christmas
The baby Jesus really is taken from a page from God’s great history. Because that morning, as I sobbed until my eyes bulged swollen, the fully alive Jesus — grown-up and reigning on high with Christmas anthems sung to Him in full concert across the world — swooped down to my puddled place in the back pew.There, as others cheerfully filed past me in red scarves and matching gloves, sat a crumpled Bonnie and a loving Savior in mourning with me until I had no more tears to spill.
I celebrated Jesus’ birth that year, in a way I never thought possible — unprepared. I look back and I see true Christmas came alive in me that year.
Jesus was the Light that came into the darkness.
Jesus continues to enter into our darkness today.
Maybe you are standing where I was that year, facing into this Christmas season with your hopes dashed.
Is it a dream that’s shattering or a relationship that can’t be repaired?
In today’s troubled world, many of us are entering into the season with illness, financial troubles, or simply weariness.
We may be uncertain about our next steps, but we can be certain of God.
God is going to come through for us, just like that night Jesus came into the world.
Jesus came to meet us. Right where we are.
His arms are strong enough to carry us. His eyes can see farther ahead, even though His face is close enough to trace the tears silently leaking inside us and bursting our hearts.
Jesus is God’s love that arrived in the dark of the night. He is close beside us, as we travel by faith through foreign lands of unfamiliar circumstances. He sees you and He will guide you.
We don’t have to be ready for Christmas — because Jesus is God’s Gift. Immanuel is ready for us.
“So do not fear,
for I am with you;
do not be dismayed,
for I am your God.
for I am with you;
do not be dismayed,
for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you…”
~ Isaiah 41:10
~ Isaiah 41:10
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