I saw a funny Christmas graphic recently that I saved and sent to a couple of friends who are having issues. It read “Gonna go lay under the tree to remind my family that I am a gift”. If my hubby caught me laying under the tree he’d wonder what had happened to me!
But the truth is – we all need an attitude adjustment. We are a gift. Every single one of us.
Oh beloved, Christmas is the perfect time to adjust our attitudes. For some reason, even though the season is wild and wonderful, we often focus on the losses and sorrows. Yes, there are losses and sorrows, no we aren’t perfect. But there is Jesus, who gave Himself to us to give us a future and a hope. He also gave us a brand new life – one without regrets or condemnation.
God wants you to know this very morning that you are enough. You are more than. You are perfect in His sight. You are a gift through Christ to your spouse, your family, your office, your church and your world. This is no ordinary self-centered me me me sonata. It’s your life calling. You’ve been bought with a price and given to the corner of your world to show forth the praises of the One who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You are now salt and light to the world – shining brightly to point the way to Jesus and seasoning your world with His love, joy, peace and more. You don’t have to go lay under the tree to prove your worth, or buy profuse gifts, or allow someone to mistreat you, or become someone you aren’t – those people pleasing ideals won’t do a thing for you or the Kingdom.
Because of Whose you are, God says its time to give yourself gifts – the gift of rest, the gift of forgiveness, the gift of love, and the gift of blessing. These things are what you tend to hold back from yourself yet through Christ they are yours continually and eternally. You know how you’d feel if someone opened a gift from you on Christmas morning and they said “no thanks” and handed it back. The Lord wants you to take those precious gifts from Him and live in them always! No returns. All for His love.
God loves you and He’s for you. Go be you! You are the best you! You are a chosen you – a part of the Royal Priesthood, a member of the Holy Nation, and you’re peculiar – not the kind of weirdo peculiar – but one who stands out as conforming only to the Lord and His Word. So stop hoping, start living and allow yourself to be who you are in Christ. And then live in the Truth of what God says you are – a gift to the world for the Gospel and Kingdom all of your life!
I Peter 2: 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.
1 Samuel 12: 22 Indeed, for the sake of His great name the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own.
Isaiah 62: 12 And they will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of The LORD; and you will be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.
2 Corinthians 3: 6 He has enabled us to be ministers of His new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.
John 1: 16 From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.