Were You Changed by Christmas?

Christmas 2012 has come and gone. Decorations and lights are in hibernation until next year. Thank you’s have been said and gifts have found a home in the toy box, on a shelf, in a closet. Rest has brought welcome relief from the weariness Christmas often brings. We’ve witnessed the advent of the year 2013. The hectic pace of Christmas and New Year celebrations has faded into normal routines. The holidays are over and a new year has started. Now what?

My brother posts a prayer on Facebook each day. They are interactions between him and God, but if you want to listen in, he doesn’t mind. I am always touched by them, sometimes to tears. With his permission I am sharing the one from December 26^th with you:

 

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. (Luke 2:20)

“Lord Christ, You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. At Christmastime the diamond is touted as the gift that never stops giving. Only You can fulfill that kind of promise. Your faithfulness knows no end; Your love is unrelenting. The joy of Christmas is for every day of the year!

Thank You for promising me strength for whatever comes in the passing moments of every hour of the New Year. Knowing this, I plan to live each moment to the fullest. You have banished worry about tomorrow; now the future is a friend.

Like the shepherds who went back to work as different people because of beholding Your glory in the manger, I want to go back to my daily routines as a different person because of Christmas. I accept the gift that changes everything. With Christmas love, joy, hope, and peace, I can go back to old relationships, pressing responsibilities, the troubled world, and those problems I set aside until after the holidays. Nothing has changed, and yet everything is different. The difference is inside of me. Nothing can ever be the same again! You have recruited me to be a Christmas angel, a messenger, to the world around me. Some people will be disappointed that Christmas made so little difference. Today help me to communicate to burned out, demoralized, done-in people what it means to receive Your strength each moment. Amen.”  Tommy John, December 26, 2012

               How did spending time with Jesus on His birthday this year change you? Have you got your marching orders for 2013? As the year rolls on, will your call to ministry become reality?

Praying blessings of joy, peace, love and hope over you for 2013-

Cathy

P.S. If you enjoyed Tommy’s prayer, join him on Facebook so you can get his renderings every day. Tell him you’re my friend when you ask to be his.