We are entering the holiday season, and if you are like me, you are already planning what Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve will look like. There are meals to plan, family to visit, cleaning and decorating to do, possible travel, and oh yeah … we need to get to church also. Isn’t it odd that we tend to fit church into our plans rather than make church the plan?
Do you remember when you were a kid? Holidays were something we looked forward to with childlike enthusiasm. We couldn’t wait to be with family, get gifts, eat great food, maybe even travel. We loved the holidays. Now, as an adult, maybe the holidays have become a dread. The decorating, the shopping, the crazy schedules. How often do we fill the task list and get everything done so we have a postcard holiday and yet totally miss the reason for the season? Or how often do we wish we could avoid the holidays altogether because we have become indifferent to what they are really all about?
Maybe your faith is like that, too. Maybe you used to be very involved in church but your heart has grown weary and tired and involvement has become a task instead of a blessing to you. Have you grown weary in your relationship with God? Has it become a task on your to-do list to pray, meditate, worship, and serve? Or does it come from your heart … a natural feeling from inside you to take time and celebrate the one who has set you free?
Your freedom in Christ has set you in motion to a life that is in relationship with him. It has afforded you options to truly feel alive and celebrate. It is in relationship with him that your soul will feel well. It is in relationship with him that you will feel all the peace of any holiday, rather than the stress of to-do lists.
Take this opportunity to change how you approach life. Do not become indifferent to what God has done for you. The doors he has closed and the doors he has opened have all been for you to become free to worship him. He wants you to reach out to him and spend time with him each and every day. Make your life and your to-do list something that reflects that you are both alive and well in him.
Reflection:
- Has your worship life become more of a “got to” instead of a “get to”?
- Have you ever felt on fire for God’s word? What did that feel like?
- What can you do to get back to the heart of worship and make all of your to-do lists something you do in relationship with God? How can you glorify God in all you do during the holidays—and every day?