" Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."

Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)

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Changing our focus

About 2,000 years ago, Paul wrote a letter to the Christians living in Rome and in the first few paragraphs he wrote this “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:22-23)

It doesn’t take long to realise when you look around the world in which we live, that this is still the case today and Christmas time is no exception. For longer than I care to remember, Christmas has been getting less and less about Christ and more and more about ourselves. We have exchanged a celebration of God to a celebration of all things worldly.

The focus has gradually changed from a celebration put aside by the Christian church amongst all of the pagan going’s on to celebrate the coming of the Son of God, to a celebration of all things material and worldly. Many children today if asked what Christmas is all about would answer ‘presents’ or ‘Father Christmas’, very rarely will you get a response like, ‘it is a time to celebrate the birth of the Saviour of the world’.

More and more money is being spent on presents and food as our greed takes over. Present lists are written with items that promise to make our lives better or easy or more complete, children are inundated with adverts telling them that their life is not worth living without the latest toy.

The pull of this world at Christmas gets greater and greater each year, yet as John says in 1 John 2:16 ‘All that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.’

This Christmas will be no different, or will it?

My hope and prayer for all of us this year will be that Christmas will be all about the Glory of God, that we will enjoy this time as we remember what an amazing thing happened all those years ago when the Son of God came to walk on this very earth. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he writes, ‘So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31). This verse is a real challenge to us as Christians as it tells us that God should be glorified in all that we do, that is that God should be seen as good and glorious through all of our actions.

So when we eat we do it with thankfulness and gratitude to God, so if someone sees us eating they know that we believe God has provided us with yet another meal to strengthen us, or when we sit at the Christmas dinner table and there is only one Yorkshire pudding left, we don’t grab it and have it all to ourselves, but instead we show that each other’s needs are greater than our own.

This Christmas gives us all an opportunity, an opportunity to share the Gospel with those who we meet, an opportunity to give to those in need, an opportunity to enjoy all that God has blessed us with, but more importantly, an opportunity for us to Glorify God in everything we do.

My hope and prayer for all of us this year is that we will not exchange the Glory of God at this wondrous time of year for the things of this world that will all too soon pass away. May God bless you and keep you this Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour and Lord.

Grace and peace to you

Adam Blowes