With the passing of Christmas day insecurities arise:
Did we do it right?
Did we sing the right songs?
Give the right gifts?
Play the right games?
Eat the right meal?
Spend enough time with family?
Forgive us for measuring the success of Christmas-
as if this were possible to do.
Remind us of stunning realities-
That Jesus lived perfectly for us,
sang songs of redemption over us,
gifted us with new life in him,
freed us to worship and play,
sacramentally taught us to eat and drink,
promised to dwell with us always.
The "success" of Christmas was never up to us.
The Lord Jesus came.
The Lord Jesus comes.
The Lord Jesus will come again.
Give us this season sweet fellowship with you.
Give us belief in your presence-
Your holy, blessed, joyous, and nourishing presence.
We confess that we long for Heaven for the wrong reasons:
We want our suffering to end,
not to be in the presence of the Suffering Servant.
We want to be freed from having to worry,
not to be in the presence of the sovereign one.
We want to watch others proved wrong,
not to see the name of Jesus high and lifted up.
When we pray for the Kingdom of God to come,
show us that this means the death of ourselves,
the death of our accomplishments,
the death of our efforts,
the death of our fame,
the death of our merit.
Your kingdom belongs to He who came as a baby.
We have been working our whole lives to bring gifts to the manger.
Forgive us, lavish us, and secure us in that we have nothing to offer!
Our pride is offended, but our souls are free.
We praise you Emmanuel.
Grant us faith in Him who has come,
and help us to believe that there is no life in any other.
Still clinging to the gifts we just got,
we cry out to You for continuous grace.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment