The Season Of Advent // Turn Your Eyes To Jesusنموونە

Healing Your Heart This Christmas

You say you like to remember, imagine, the day that I came to earth. The beauty. The miracle. But don’t get so caught up in looking back that you don’t see what is before you now: this moment, too. For I am here, now. And here is where I’ll stay.

You await Me. You look for Me. You call out to Me and count the ways you need Me, marking them on your calendar. But be sure to register the passing of days with joy and with gratitude: I have come to you, and I am coming again. I am with you now, yet there is more of Me for you to receive. I want you to see the birth—the birth of something new.

So wait and don’t wait. Receive Me now—and expect Me even more. I bring restoration to your heart, restoration to the world listless and confused. So you don’t have to feel distracted and overwhelmed. You don’t have to be pulled this way and that, trying to please a world that struggles to understand. I help you understand. Remember that I create unity within your home, your heart. It is my heart within you that brings peace.

You call this season “busy” and “full.” There is much pomp and circumstance. There is much glitter and noise. There is so much noise. That is okay. Be wary of the distractions that pull you away from Me; but do not be afraid. I can pull you right back. Be careful of weariness, choosing activity that makes you feel like you are worshipping Me when you are not. Watch how this world tells you what worship looks like. There are not so many things you need to do to celebrate my Son’s birth.

What is it you need to do? What is the right way to celebrate, to rejoice? A great place to start is with wisdom—knowing not just who came to save, but why you need to be saved. You see . . . you, without my Son, are separated from Me. You are torn from Me. And my Son brings you back. He restores in you what is true.

This is why my Son—the birth of everything good, the birth of hope upon the earth—is the beginning of you. He is the unifier of souls He fixes what was broken. He joins what was severed. And your heart can be connected once more, with mine—if you want it to be.

Do you want it to be?

Ask Me how you have been broken. Ask Me to show you how you have gone away from Me. For then, I will bring healing. Then, I, and My Son—together—will bring you back.

That is something to celebrate. Don’t you agree?

Remember, the birth you celebrate in this season is the birth of you, too.

Exercise:

There is much to celebrate at Christmas time—and much to distract us too. It’s a season of goodness and love. But it’s also a season of noise and pressure. And it can be a season of loneliness and sorrow and loss.

It’s easy to get caught up in the invitations—or temptations—to go and do and to fill our schedules with things and people and events. It’s no coincidence that here we are, invited by our God to slow down and take in the beauty of Christ’s birth, and our culture is bullying us to do the opposite. Because, while not impossible, it’s just much more difficult to hear God’s voice, and experience His presence, when we’re constantly moving, constantly planning, constantly striving to create—on our own—some kind of Christmas experience that will be meaningful, satisfying, that will compare well with other people’s experiences.

But how do we even know what our hearts need this Christmas, if we don’t connect with the One who always knows what we need? Because while the world says celebrate, we might not feel like celebrating. Or while the world tries to convince us that a “good Christmas” looks like going to parties, buying and giving gifts, attending church services, we might just be struggling to keep our head above water—and might just need to do less.

Well, this season can be what it is meant to be if we do this one thing . . .

Of all the things that we can do this Christmas, there’s only one that’s guaranteed to recalibrate our hearts, realign our hearts; reconnect our hearts; restore our hearts—there’s only one activity that’s guaranteed to change our Christmas. And it’s this: worship. Worship is one thing our hearts need most.

Jennifer and I love these words from David’s Tent, a ministry specifically focused on bringing people together to worship God. “The power of worship,” they wrote, “is its ability to unite the entire person. Our spirit connects with His Spirit and brings the soul and body with it. The result is a complete and beautiful expression of the promise Jesus fulfilled in ourselves: joy of heart and mind and body.”

What if, this Christmas season, we were able to dial down the level of the noise and the distraction—or, at least, minimized their abilities to affect us—and found a few minutes to worship every, or most days, up until Christmas?

Remember Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” That is from John chapter 4.

So, what is worship? Worship is simply telling God who He is—who He has been to us, who we know Him to be, who we trust He will be.

And it’s good for everyone. It’s good for God--He loves it. It ministers to His heart. And it’s good for us. Again, it recalibrates, realigns, reconnects, and restores our hearts. When we’re doing it, we’re doing what we were made to do.

How is Jesus inviting you to worship Him this Christmas season?

Spend a few moments considering this question for you, personally, uniquely.

We pray that you are able to find a few moments, maybe a few moments each day during this Christmas season, to worship—for personal, honest worship—maybe with music, maybe in silence. And we pray, dear friends, that this season is one of deep union with God.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.