FATHER how is it that we come to look upon the babe in the manger at this time of the year? At Christmas, the day set aside so we can remember that YOU, JESUS, stepped down out of eternity, took off YOUR royal robes of YOUR glory, also laying aside YOUR divine powers. Coming as a helpless baby, completely powerless, completely vulnerable. Fully reliant on Mary and Joseph for everything, YOUR complete care and survival. But YOU came to live the same life that we live. FATHER as we come into Christmas day, LORD awaken in us the wonder and awe that the Shepherds had when the angels told them about the saviour being born and how they came to look upon this child to see the SPOTLESS LAMB OF GOD laying in the manger – a feed trough. Continue reading “Christmas Prayer for CCUC”
Advent Joy
As Christmas draws ever more near, we joyfully look forward to our celebration of Jesus’ birth. We look back at the blessed event and rejoice in a promise fulfilled, a Saviour born.
In the years and centuries before Christ’s birth, God’s people waited in joyful expectation, for a Saviour promised, but One who had not yet come. Throughout the Old Testament, God calls his people to joyfulness.
When we take time to reflect on what God has done for us and offer him our very best—in time, effort, skills, gifts—the inevitable response of our souls is joy.
The Bible is clear that joy comes from God (Neh. 8:9-10), and our joy is a product of what God has done and continues to do. It is gladness and contentedness flowing out of the well-spring of God’s faithfulness and mercy, quite independent of our circumstances. The Psalmist writes, “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it…Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness” (Psalm 96:11-13).
Our joy is anchored in the knowledge that God fulfilled his promise. It is important to remember that the joy we have in Christ is not seasonal or situational. Like the joy of the ancient Israelites, our joy is a response to what God has already done and continues to do.
When Christ came and dwelt among his people, he was their rabbi or teacher. He taught them about God’s love and urged them to remain in him, saying “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” (John 15:11). It is a kind of joy, grounded in thankfulness for the first Advent of Jesus Christ and looking forward toward his second coming, that is a marker of faithful believers.
Today, our joy, fuelled by the Holy Spirit, is what God uses to spread his joy throughout the world. Mother Teresa once said “Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.” True biblical joy is what God calls us to, and it is a joy that endures whether we’re in the throes of cheerful Christmas anticipation or the lows of post-holiday blues. So, this Advent (and beyond), will you respond to God’s call to be joyful?
adapted from an article 26.11.18 by Robin Basselin