Christmas is
the season to spread God's hope and joy. As His love resides within our heart,
we can reach out even to the most undesirable person in our sphere of influence,
in order to share with them God's peace, which is centered in His promises and
grace.
The lonely,
desperate, addicted, destitute members of our society need to know that they
matter, that someone genuinely cares about them. If we go the extra mile for
them, our attitude and actions put a dent in the armor they use to protect
themselves.
The world
relegates these wounded individuals to a place of condemnation without any hope
of salvation and redemption. Yet, as authentic Believers, we already
experienced the restoration which God provides once we surrender our life to
Him.
As examples
of God's love to these unfortunate individuals, we follow God's direction to
help them out of their "prison" of darkness, and to come into the
glorious light of God's will for their life.
When we do
this, we often need to face our own need for more of God in our life. We accept
His forgiveness of our current sins and His love for us, even when we are still
sinners (Romans 5:8).
This allows
us to surrender the vulnerable parts of our soul - our thoughts, emotions and
choices - to Him that we often guard and keep hidden from even our closest
family and friends. Our covetousness, discontentment and self-centeredness melt
under the heat of God's loving conviction.
God offers
redemption, peace, joy and love to everyone - from the most successful to the
least of those according to this world's standards. He wants to shed His love
in our life and restore each of us to a life in His light and hope.
Prayer:
Father God,
in this hectic world of our own making, we are often so drained of energy and
physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted that we have no desire to reach
out to the needy all around us. We hide behind the television screen, our easy
chair and an extra nap in order to have an excuse to ignore those who are less
fortunate than we are.
Help us to
focus on the poor and needy in our community so that You can use us to share
the hope and truth that You communicate to us. Give us Your broken heart for
the lost in our community and use us to reach out to them with the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, their only hope of salvation in this world and the next.
Thought for
the Day:
Rather than
demoting people, who feel judged and rejected with no real hope of restoration,
to a place of eternal damnation, we can reach out to them through the love of
God and give them in their hopelessness, the reality that they have a place in
the Kingdom of God, if they will simply and humbly surrender to our Lord.
