Black Friday! The holiday season is in full swing! Christmas is coming! Does your heart accelerate and your mind whirl? Too many things to do! Christmas is coming! So much to plan, trying to keep everyone content, all the while maintaining the reason for the season?
Maybe you, like me, have to fight feeling stressed when it comes to preparing to celebrate the season!
In Philippians 4:6, we are instructed, “Don’t worry about anything”.
That’s hard to implement, though. We want everyone to find pleasure in the festivities, the food, and have fun. We want family to mesh well, no one departing with hurt feelings, and everyone feel to blessed for coming.
How not to worry?
The verse answers this by instructing, “by prayer and petition”.
When we feel the anxiety inching in, we should pray. Ask God for help. Petition our loving Father to direct our thoughts elsewhere. (Philippians 4:8-9 instructs what we ought to think about!)
Maybe like me, you need to petition these requests more than once.
No worries! He still wants us to repeatedly report our concerns, attempting to relinquish them to Him. We can do this, time after time, with thanksgiving.
According to dictionary.com, thanksgiving means, “the act of giving thanks, grateful acknowledgement of benefits or favors, especially to God.”
We can thank God for taking our burdens. We can celebrate He’s got this! We may not understand how He might work this out, but we can rest assured He has it. We can trust His outcome.
And that we can celebrate with thanksgiving!
The holidays are by definition, “a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.” (Dictionary.om)
They are a cause for celebration; they should not be a source of stress or burden.
As we approach our holiday season, let’s pray that we can indeed celebrate, and not worry about anything! After all, the Reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, who came to reunite us with our heavenly Father. Let’s honor Him by not allowing ourselves to get distracted by earthly stress.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You that I may indeed come to You with any burdens I carry. You will lift them from me. Please help change my attitude from one of worry to one of celebration. Because even when concerns exist, I can learn to celebrate with thanksgiving, knowing You have them, and will care for them. Let me honor You by recalling the purpose of Christmas and enjoying the gift You came to give. Thank You, in Jesus’ name, Amen.