Prepare Your Heart: Christmas DevotionsSample

Celebrate Hope

Is the glass of your life half full or half empty right now? Is your heart full of optimism or regrets? Do the coming days of Christmas fill you with joyful anticipation or sad memories? The more you put pressure on yourself to make things happen, the more frustrated you will be. “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him” (Philippians 3:8,9).

Here is the true magic of Christmas--not what you are doing for your family or friends or yourself or even for Christ, but rather what He has already done for you. Through Christ you are forgiven of all your sins. If you are forgiven, then you are loved by God. If loved, then you will be protected, fed, sheltered, and blessed. If you are blessed, then you will always have enough. If you are forgiven, then you are immortal.

The Christmas story guarantees that Christ really came as He said He would. Celebrate that sure hope.