22 Dec How To Beat The Christmas Blues

It is no secret that the Christmas season is not joyous for everyone. Financial issues, family issues, addiction issues, homelessness, loneliness, health issues: they can all rob people of their joy, especially when the expectation is we are filled with Christmas joy. Samaritan’s Heart Mission Church is serving members of church of our family who are dealing with many of the challenges listed above. I saw two powerful quotes this week that encouraged me. If you’re struggling in this Christmas season, I pray they encourage you too. First:

God harnessed the forces of nature and controlled the events of history to redeem you. Will he abandon you now in your moment of need? – Paul Tripp.

That is so impactful. Tripp is right. In Genesis 3:15 God promises a remedy to the mistake Adam and Eve made. He designed thousands of years of history and bent His own rules of nature preparing for the moment Jesus would arrive on earth to save us from this broken world. I encourage you to look at the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. Stop reading this and go look right now. Generation after generation constructed by God’s hand to bring Jesus at exactly the right moment; for you, for me, for all humanity. If He did that, do you really believe that anything you face is too much for Him?

Then there is this one:

Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. God is turned into a machine for generating blessings, and Jesus into a worker among workers. The idea we should have isn’t that we work for God but that we are so loyal to him that he can work through us. God wants to use us as he used his own Son. When Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8), he meant “witnesses who satisfy me in any circumstance I put you in, witnesses I am counting on for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on mine.” Oswald Chambers, “My Utmost for His Highest” devotional for December 9.

Chambers is referring to Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” As people of faith, we either believe that or we don’t. Even when we can’t see it; especially when we can’t see it. No complaining from us, no explaining from Him.

If you’re struggling this Christmas season, I pray this encourages you. God constructed century after century of history and dozens of generations of families so Jesus could die at the exact moment He did and called you by name in that moment. You can trust that same God of the Universe with whatever is keeping you from the joy of celebrating the arrival of the Christ this year!

Pastor Jerry Bader