Always

Romans 11:29  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

 

 

The Christmas season is in full swing. Chances are you are feeling like most of us are. There is a tremendous feeling of pressure to preform, pressure to produce, pressure to be at the top of your game. You might feel the need to outdo yourself from lasts year, or out do your neighbor, or out do a family member. Whatever the case you feel overworked, and underappreciated. Maybe you are like many more people, and instead of feeling like you have too much to do, you in fact feel like you have nothing to do. This is the time of year when a lot of people feel isolated, shut out, and cut off. Those around them are celebrating, surrounding themselves with family and friends, all the while you have no one to share with. Guess what? No matter which neat little box you fit into, or maybe it is a box that society has come up with that I did not mention. There is one truth that remains. God is not a liar, and He does not take back His promises.

 

 

Think back to 2 weeks ago, two months, ago, two years ago, whatever the time frame, think back to the last time you simply felt like you were enough. There was no need to don a cape, and become a super hero, nor did you feel alone and cut off. The person you were then at your happiest moment, is the same person you are right now. The person you were when you felt like you were on the right track, and you had the time to do what you needed to get done…..yep you are that same person right now as well……and you know what, God is the same as well. All of those promises that were so clear, all of the feelings of calm, peace, hope, and joy, are still right there with you. We allow this season, this “holiday” to rob us of our joy, and shove God to the back of the line. Oddly enough, He is the very reason that we are celebrating anything anyway! Had it not been for His gift that He gave to the world, then there would be no need to put up the nativity, hang the star, buy the gifts, none of it would have any meaning, or any purpose. Yet we allow these feeling in to our home. We allow them to overtake our desire, our direction, and our purpose. Like a child with a new toy, all too often we too drop our true sense of purpose, and direction, and we get wrapped up in this moment. As a result, for a short period of time, we revoke what we have already given to God. What if he was to do that to us?

 

Could you imagine a God that says He loves you, but when He is busy (and I am fairly sure He is busy often) He sets you to the side? What if When things got hectic, He left you high and dry? What if He felt lonely and rejected when you did not talk to Him, so He just pushed everyone, and everything away so that He could wallow in His sorrow? That is a sad picture of God, and it is one that you will never see. God is taking a great interest in your life right now. Oh it does not feel that way? Are you looking for it, for him, for the answer….or are we just looking for the pay off right now? God is faithful, HE is absolute, and He is unwavering in His love, and compassion for us. He sent His Son so that we might once again be joined together as a family. There is a constant flow of love, patience, Joy, and forgiveness. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

 

This holiday season, let us set aside the trappings, the snares, and the pitfalls that come every year with this holiday. No one around you should feel neglected, or unloved, for you are the representative of Christ here on earth. The time pressures that you feel so sensitive to, throw them off. Do not allow this Holiday to dictate your schedule. Focus on the Lord, and let Him set the tempo. The pressure that you feel to be better, faster, bigger, more than last year is pressure that you have put upon yourself. God loves you for you, right now, just the way you are, a constant work in progress. He has given you amazing gifts, gifts that people around you do not have, use them. Do not set them aside “until you get caught up” do not wait, do not falter, do not fall prey to the holiday. Do not allow this crazy idea of perfection that is portrayed by the world cloud your purpose, and your direction. God will never hold back, He will never let us down, HE will never take back what He has already promised. So as we trudge through this season, let us turn our eyes, our thoughts, our desires, and our goals, back to the one constant in our life. Our true north, our rock, our foundation, our beginning, and our end. Jesus in in fact the reason for the season, but this season will pass, the Lord never will.

 

 

God Bless,

 

Brian Thetford

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22

 

The Workweek With Christ