His Presents!

Merry Christmas!  Christmas will be here before we know it and most of us have some presents already wrapped up in anticipation for the day!  Jesus's Birthday party is a highly anticipated event even to those who don't even know Him.  Everyone loves a party and so even those who don't know Jesus have been crashing his birthday party for years!  Leaving quite a few Christians concerned that we have lost the true meaning of Christmas.  Christians try to turn attention to "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" which is so true!  We start talking about "God's presence being more important than the presents under the tree."  But this morning I felt overwhelmed not with his presence but with His presents. 

God placed on my heart this morning that Christmas is Jesus's birthday and the presents are apart of this celebration.  We may over emphasize and over spend on gifts but presents have always been a part of Christmas!  Because God himself gave us Jesus on Christmas and the wise men so humbly followed the star and brought gifts to Jesus on the day He was born.  Presents and gifts are a part of the story but they are not the major emphasis of the story!  The main emphasis should be on Jesus, the life he lived, and how He died on the cross for our sins and rose agains! 

This morning I woke up a little tired and a little cranky.  I found myself feeling convicted to write.  I thought I'd write what I jotted down in a notebook yesterday but instead God led me to this passage in

James 2:4 " When troubles come your way consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is "fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing"

 and then I was directed to

Galations 5:22 "The holy spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." 

Immediately I began to think of these fruits as "His presents" that he has for me but I have to wait.  Just like my children see the presents under the tree but they must go through each day, finish school up and wait for Christmas Eve when they can open their presents.  There is great joy each day in the anticipation of opening those gifts despite not being able to open them now.  There is still pleading of "please can I just open one" but it is not yet time.  And I ask God the same thing!  I see the gifts of his fruit and I want nothing more to open that present but I have to wait and endure these hard times we are going through now.  No one but us and God knows what we are going through and it's hard and all I want to say is "Can I just have one present now. If you just give me one present now. I'll be good for the rest of the time."  And God said to me, "Through these trials my dear, there has been a present I have told you that you could have but you don't think it's useful until you get through all of this. But it is the one thing that will get you through.  Your troubles have given you an opportunity to open up the great gift of "Joy" but you have yet to open it up. If you want to open up one present now, it needs to be this one." 

And so I opened that present this morning and it's not a useless gift.  I feel such a joy in me today that I haven't had in a long time. I've had the gift of joy before but honestly, I think I lost it in the move!  However, I know there will be days where I have to make myself use this gift.  It won't come as easily as it does today but I won't let the new wear off this gift.  It's too great of a gift to just forget about or lose.  And I wait with great anticipation to open up not the presents under the Christmas tree but "His presents" that I know will come if I take the Joy He has given me and walk through these difficuties in His presence!