Christmas and New Years Special Gift
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
As Christians, Christmas time is about the celebration of our Saviour’s birth. New Years is a time for setting goals and making resolutions, all geared toward becoming a better person.
But what is the point of all this?
Why are we here on this earth in the first place?
Why did Jesus come to earth?
What is the Purpose of Your Life?
Why do we make resolutions and goals to become better people?
I have a few phrases that I love.
One being, “I can’t, but He can.” Using the verses Philippians 4:13 and John 15:5 together.
But my most favorite is probably, “But, Jesus.”
You can spend hours complaining about anything and everything, hours asking questions, hours debating…
But, Jesus!
Jesus makes everything different.
I’ve struggled with my purpose for years.
I’ve wondered, “God, why am I here?”
Just recently the thought has been going through my head, “There are plenty of other people in this world, why am I needed?” Everything that I want to do or feel God has laid on my heart I struggle with. I feel like ‘God, you’ve chosen the wrong person. So-and-so would be so much better at this.’ I think ‘why not choose someone else? Why did He place these things on my heart and not someone else? What makes me so special for this task?’
I haven’t met one person that this thought has not crossed their mind at some point in their life. I believe this is because God put us on earth for a purpose. We aren’t here just because. Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works” that God chose for us specifically because He knows we would be the best person to do it according to His goals. What we’ve been through, who we have interacted with, the struggles we have had to deal with… makes each of us unique.
In church yesterday they had an altar call. One side is for those who want to pray alone. One side is for those who want someone to pray with them. The alone side filled up, but one lady went to the altar wanting someone to pray with her. I immediately felt like I should go pray for her. But I waited to see if anyone else would. I actually prayed someone else would, but no one did. I was thinking, “God, why did you not put it on someone’s heart to pray with her?” He said, “I did.” Immediately it was as if I cared what no one thought, walked up, knelt beside this lady, and asked how I could pray for her. She shared something that I could so easily relate to. After we prayed, I walked away thinking, “Wow! God you chose me to pray with the lady because of my past.” I could relate with the prayer request and possibly know better than anyone in the room how I could pray for her because I had been through it.
This opened my eyes up even more to why God chooses certain people to do certain things.
But… Jesus!
We cannot forget about Jesus and try to do good works in our own strength. This goes with my other favorite phrase, “I can’t, but He can.” Without Jesus working in us we can do nothing of eternal value. He wants to use us for specific purposes but we have to abide in Him in order for that to happen. We have to go back to the most important basic and that is why Jesus came to earth. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 clearly says it was to reconcile our relationship with the Father and then work through us to help bring others back into perfect fellowship with the Father as well. That’s our only goal on this earth. It isn’t about being saved from Hell. It isn’t about spreading the Gospel. It’s about A RELATIONSHIP. Yes Hell is real. A very unpleasant, eternal torture. Yes the Gospel is important because without it we would not be able to go to heaven, nor know the depth of God’s love.
But why does God want you to go to Heaven? To spend eternity with YOU!
‘But Jesus’ is one of the most important things to remember. It doesn’t matter what goes on, what happens, or what our questions are, we can always say, “But, Jesus!” He has all the answers. And just like our Pastor said yesterday, PRAYER is the key to that relationship. So open up the Bible, read it, and spend time communicating with HIM!
I love ya’ll and pray you have a blessed Christmas and New Year!
My Gift to You
Applications for the Back to the Basics Course are openning in January!!
This is a group of ladies over 18 that gather bi-weekly for 12 weeks to encourage each other to run the Christian life WITH God! Not for Him, but WITH HIM!!
I am so excited to be opening another group!
This group will start in April of 2024.
To learn more go to the Course page here. Prices for this group only is $15 per person.
We like to keep the group small so be sure to fill out the application in complete honesty. We will go over each in prayer and choose who we feel will best benefit from the course.
There will be a waiting list if you choose to be on it, though the price may change in the future.
Looking forward to hearing from it!
Be Still and Run 