A Christmas Prayer
December 15, 2012
A couple of weeks ago, we recommended a few Advent books for your Christmas season. Several of you have commented to us about the selections. Thank you! I’ve also heard specifically from some people about how timely a particular entry was because regardless of Christmas coming, life also just keeps coming, doesn’t it? On a lighter note, it seems that books I want to read keep coming at me faster than ever right now. It’s no secret that Sheryl and I are voracious readers and have many books going at one time. By the way, she’s out-reading me this year, not that we are competitive or anything…. We all know words matter, right? Written words and spoken words – words in books we hold and electronic words in our e-readers – and hopefully words in this blog.
Today I am going to recycle a few words from John Piper’s book “Good News of Great Joy”. Because I am often reading several books at once, along with my “good for me” books that are spiritual, I try to read things that will be helpful in other areas of my life. Right now, I am listening to an audiobook on memory. You can draw your own conclusion about why I chose that subject matter. Now where was I? Oh yes, recycling some of John Piper’s words. In trying to improve my memory and integrate that process into my spiritual disciplines, I wrote down one key phrase or idea from each day’s entry in “Good News of Great Joy”. Every morning before I read the devotion for the new day, I have been reviewing the concepts by making them into a prayer. My words for you today are a simple echo from the first fifteen days of Advent. I hope you are encouraged and find fresh breath of faith for what you are facing the rest of this season.
“Dear Lord, Christmas is a reminder that I need a Savior. You provided that in Jesus, and like Mary, I can say, “You have done great things for me!” You came in an unexpected way – a manger – and you continue to come to me daily in unexpected and glorious ways. Thank you. What a comfort to know that all the forces in the world are guided by Your Hand and Your Hand is never shortened. It’s never a question of what You “could do” but what You WILL to do. You could have saved Mary and Joseph a room in Bethlehem but that wasn’t Your perfect plan – the plan that provides PEACE for those who believe. Help my unbelief when I stumble. I pray, too, you will keep me from having a “mentality for the marginal” and cure me from the ills of indifference to Your Presence in this world and the needs of other people. Help me to remember Christmas gives birth to the “death of fear” and the “fear of death”. If I need not fear my greatest enemy, I need not fear anything. I praise you for Jesus being the final reality and for salvation that is sealed in my heart and mind. Keep these thoughts ever before me as I focus on the meaning of CHRIST-mas. In Your precious Son’s name, Amen.” (ct)