Preparing for Christmas
“Deck the halls with boughs of holly,” the well-known carol begins. And so we do.
Some of us prepare for Christmas at the first hint of cold weather, while others postpone the inevitable as long as possible.
But at some point we all get caught in a vortex of activity—most of it fun and festive but exhausting nonetheless, leaving our souls feeling both stuffed and empty. Often, it’s in the midst of this hubbub of holiday cheer that we quietly wonder, “Is this all there is?” The good news is that beyond the cookie platters, shopping lists, and decorating is the Son of God made man for us.
God knows we’re prone to frenetic activity. This is one of the reasons He built in a day of rest for the Israelites every six days—that they might pause their doing and recognize the goodness of their God, their own desperate need for Him, and His gift of stillness.
In practicing rest, we acknowledge God’s trustworthiness: even when we cease working, God continues to hold our world together.
This year I invite you, as our Lord and Savior invited His disciples, to come away with Him and get some rest, to slow down and rediscover the wonder and joy of the Christmas season in the midst of your favorite holiday traditions.
But what does that look like?
We can practice restful worship using the acronym REST: remember His goodness, express your neediness, seek His stillness, and trust His faithfulness.
Remember God’s Goodness
We all suffer from soul amnesia, forgetting who God is and what He has done for us from one day to the next. Like you, I too must remind myself each year who Jesus is and why His birth is so miraculous—not because my mind doesn’t know but because my heart ceases to be amazed. As the old saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt, and sadly, our own hearts lose that sense of wonder.
This is part of the reason the Israelites were instructed to remember God’s miraculous works on a regular basis: so that they and their children would not forget, but also so that God’s closeness and power would remain fresh in their minds.
As we anticipate the Christmas season and all the preparations that go with it, it’s easy to get caught up in creating our own little winter wonderlands. So we must be intentional in remembering God’s goodness: both who He is and what He has done.
A beautiful way to do just that is to meditate on the names of Jesus, fully savoring the season of Christmas by recognizing the many ways He is near us even now.
Like twirling a brilliant-cut diamond in sunlight, meditating on Jesus’ names leads us to admire the many facets of His character, each beautiful on its own, but when put together comprising a breathtaking picture of the Son of God made man to rescue us.
So I invite you to pause now and remember God’s goodness by focusing on Jesus’ names, listed in one of the most frequently recited prophesies about our Savior:
Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, the Creator who possesses all glory and power and authority yet chose to enter our world as a little child in order to dwell with His beloved and restore relationship with us.
Jesus is the Word of God, the full revelation and intelligent communication of God, and the most direct and personal message God could ever give us, available to all who seek Him.
Jesus is the Holy One of God, brilliant in majesty and commanding in authority, perfectly without sin, whose holiness does not threaten us but gives us reason to hope because He alone clothes us in divine righteousness and gives us.
Express Your Neediness
“Thanks, but I can do it.”
Have you ever turned down an offer for help, even though you really needed it?
Sometimes it’s hard to admit we can’t do everything ourselves. During all of our Christmas preparations, this sometimes results in exhaustion and crankiness. But this very same self-sufficiency can become deadly in our spiritual lives.
The truth is that we need Jesus. But we often live our lives as if we can get by on our own. It’s not until we take time to reflect on the beauty of God—His holiness, His love and kindness, His atoning sacrifice—that we realize just how desperately we need Him. There’s a vulnerability that comes with admitting our need, but Jesus promises that those who are poor in spirit, who are meek in heart, and who thirst for righteousness, are rewarded with more of God Himself.
It turns out that expressing our neediness is the only way to receive the glorious riches of Christ Jesus that God has prepared for us.
Perspective and priorities is only possible when we first spend time recognizing God’s greatness; worship moves us to a proper view of God, which moves us to confession and repentance.
Allow your need for Jesus to bring rest and calm this Christmas. The pressure is off. You don’t have to do it all on your own. In fact, you just need to rest.
Seek His Stillness
Have you ever sensed the Holy Spirit prompting you to take a break from the holiday preparations and sit for a while in Jesus’ presence, only to brush it off and focus on the next task on your list?
I know I have.
We often push ourselves at breakneck speeds, waking early and staying up late, squeezing every daylight hour for all its worth. Then we’re so exhausted by our hustle, we can hardly savor the beauty of the season.
And sometimes, this busyness is really just a guise to hide deeper hurts. If only we can keep ourselves busy, we won’t have to acknowledge the crippling wounds we carry. We fear stillness, so we leave no task undone, even though heeding the tyranny of the urgent threatens to undo us.
Yet the answer is not chucking our traditions out the window and becoming a Grinch. Instead, we must incorporate moments of stillness into the busyness so we can work from a place of wholeness and rest. The truth is that God’s salvation comes to us when we repent and rest, His strength when we’re quiet and trusting.
This Christmas season, dare to be still, even if just for two minutes each day. Bring your to-do list to the Lord and lay it at His feet. Savor the beauty of His presence as you reflect on His names and allow Him to heal deep hurts.
Trust His Faithfulness
“Do you trust Me?”
That question confronts us daily, from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep. Because to trust means to rest, and to rest means to trust.
Think about it: You wouldn’t anchor your Christmas tree in a stand that’s missing a leg, and you wouldn’t ask someone who’s always late to bring the hors d’oeuvres for the Christmas party .
Whether we realize it or not, we’re constantly evaluating the trustworthiness of the things and people around us. We do the same thing in our relationship with God, subtly negotiating just how much we’ll entrust to Him.
Whether it’s our finances, broken relationships, hidden hurts, or future dreams, we evaluate God’s faithfulness in the past to determine whether or not we can trust Him in our present.
But it’s in the midst of this holiday busyness that our trust or mistrust becomes most evident.
…We’ll stuff ourselves with cookies, pies, and holiday hams if we don’t trust Jesus to be the Bread of Life who satisfies our deepest desires.
…We’ll worry about our prodigal child if we don’t trust Jesus to be the Good Shepherd who brings lost sheep home.
…We’ll wallow in loneliness, feeling forgotten, if we don’t trust Jesus to be Immanuel, the God who dwells with us even when we’re alone.
…We’ll hustle to create the perfect Christmas if we don’t trust Jesus to be the Holy One of God who makes us perfect.
Each moment is a new opportunity to trust God’s faithfulness in a million little ways, and it all starts with learning to rest.
What if instead of rushing headlong into our busy days, we started each morning with the simple practice of resting? Let us, as the psalmist does, instruct our souls to find rest in Him alone: to remember His works and His goodness, to express our desperate need for Him, to still our minds and hearts in His presence, and to declare our confidence in His trustworthiness.
Because the One who spoke the world into existence yet came as a helpless babe that holy, blissful, silent night, can speak calm and peace into our own lives today.
Download the Unwrapping the Names of Jesus bundle and receive a Names o f Jesus prayer journal, Rest prayer bookmark, and a printable Prayer for Christmas Rest.
All Is Calm, Receiving Jesus’ Rest This Christmas, A 5-Day Devotional by Asheritah Ciuciu, From the Bible App
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