As much as I love birthdays, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Thanksgiving, Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. As we head into the Christmas holiday season, take the time to enjoy the real reason for the holidays.
This Christmas as we get into the holiday season with the hustle and bustle, and hurrying of the season, remember busyness can build walls around our hearts—where joy is uninvited into a crowded life. Take a few moments and pull away from the busyness of everything and seek God’s heart.
Before we realize what has happened, we are caught up into busyness of shopping, parties, music, food, wrapping presents, and decorating.
It is easy to get distracted and miss the real meaning of Christmas. But over time becomes distracting to the Lord’s best. Seeking God’s heart.
Life has many distractions. The world has many enticements competing for your attention. This time of year, you will find celebrations and get togethers of all types. Do not become so distracted by the busyness that you forget the real reason for Christmas. The reason is found in the season’s name, Christmas. The reason is Christ. Christmas is more than a holiday.
It is the promise fulfilled, in the birth of the son of God. Remember the promise and look forward to the blessed hope that is yours in Christ the Lord.
This Christmas with all the hurrying of the season, let us seek God’s heart more. If you remain focused on the true meaning and message of Christmas this holiday season, your heart will overflow with joy.
When you focus your heart and mind on who God is, you are overcome with his goodness and his faithfulness. You are drawn into relationship with him, and you experience his joy and his peace.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ came to Earth on a rescue mission, to provide a way of escape for us from the bondage of sin and death. We desperately needed a Savior, and because of the Father’s great love, He sent us His only Son. “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21, NKJV).
During this season of giving, we are reminded of the blessing of His birth, the gift of His immeasurable love and sacrifice. Christ came to rescue and restore, and this Christmas, our prayer for you is that the Lord will bring restoration and healing.
This Christmas I have an urgency about seeking God’s heart like never before, and seeing his hand on my life, I want to have a passion to know him better, to be obedient in all things.
David, the shepherd-king of the Bible, pursued God in this way. That is why God called him, “a man after My heart, who will do all My will” (Acts 13:22).
What was David’s primary desire? He wanted to be close to God.
God is calling you to spend time with Him this Christmas and come closer to Him. Will you take time to set your heart to seek God’s face this Christmas.?
If so, you can expect to receive the beautiful promise of Jeremiah 29:13. And along with that reward will come many others (Hebrews 11:6).
Jeremiah 29:13
“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
God delights to be pursued. He wants to be found. That is why He instructs us in His Word how to seek Him.
Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” Luke 2:13-14
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What Does the Bible Say About Seeking God with All Your Heart?
Seeking God Heart with all your heart means to seek Him know matter what comes your way. No matter how you feel, regardless of what is going on in your life. It means to continue seeking Him, even when it does not seem like He is there (He twill never leave you, nor forsake you).
With everything that is going on around you, with all the distractions, they will pull you away from your very best, and that is seeking God with all your heart.
God promises us that if you seek Him with all your heart, then you will find Him. If you come to Him and seek a personal relationship with Him, with all your heart, then you will get to know God by Him living inside of you.
When you commit to seek God is with all your heart, then God will reveal His perfect will and purpose and calling to you.
Just like God revealed himself to Moses:
In Exodus 34, Moses returned to the top of Mt. Sinai. There the Lord appeared to him, revealing not only his glory, but also his name. “Yahweh,” which appears in English translations as “the LORD,” is related etymologically to the Hebrew verb “to be.” Thus, it is a version of the name of God found in Exodus 3:14: “I AM WHO I AM” or, simply, “I AM.”
When seeking after God’s heart becomes your number one priority, you will find Him. When you find Him, you will find everything you need. This promise assures you that when you seek God with all your heart, you will find Him.
Christmas is the eternal guarantee that God is always with us in this challenging world. The incarnation of God in Jesus assures us of eternal, unbroken intimacy with the Almighty God!
Immanuel. God is with us, for us, living in us, and working through us “to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13)!
How Do You Prepare Your Heart for Christmas?
In the midst of decorating, shopping, baking, and wrapping gifts, we need to be intentional about keeping Christ in the center of Christmas. Do not allow the busyness of the season take your focus off Jesus. We need to remember the reason for the season, as they say. We need to prepare our hearts.
This year, I have decided that in addition to journaling and spending quiet time meditating in God’s Word, devotionals to prepare my heart for Christmas, I want to be intentional about reading and reflecting on God’s Word to prepare my heart for Christmas.
As you look forward to Christmas and the upcoming new year, we celebrate the new coming King. Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. May you experience His grace and peace in even bigger and better ways.
The Christmas season has arrived! It is the most wonderful time of the year!
Christmas is a season of great joy – a time to praise God and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
What is more miraculous than the coming of God in the flesh – born to the Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit – a Savior sent to redeem mankind from its sins?
Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son and will call Him Immanuel. – Isaiah 7:14
If you remain focused on the true meaning and message of Christmas this holiday season, your heart will overflow with joy.
That is because no matter what extenuating circumstances you may be facing in life, the hope and promise of Christmas rings eternally true:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. – John 1:1-2, John 1:14
The Reason for The Season is Jesus Christ
No matter how you plan to spend your Christmas, it is important to remember the Reason for the Season – remembering and celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Reason for hope and joy.
God’s precious gift to mankind, is the real reason for the season…And so to prepare my heart for this season and hopefully help you prepare.
Put Christ Back into Your Christmas
Keeping Christ in Christmas means that throughout the season revealing the character and the heart of God, The love and spirit of Christ that dwells in you and by allowing these traits to shine through your actions. There are so many ways to give to others this time of year. It doesn’t have to be some big elaborate event, or gifts, just show the love of Jesus.
Christmas is a great opportunity to make lasting memories. Take time for the people you love. Do not get caught up in the stress of things, the busyness of the season, buying the right gifts, choosing the right colors, that you miss out on the miracles of the people that God has blessed you with.
Share a smile and a hug. Share your life and make great memories with the ones you love.
Also, take time to reflect on God’s love for all of us and that he was willing to leave his throne in heaven and come to live among us on the earth. Most of all, worship God for the gift of his Son, the Lamb of God, who would take away the world’s sins.
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. — Luke 2:11
By remembering the reason for the season, we can display the virtues that make us Christians and let the joy and gratefulness we feel during the holiday spill over throughout the year. For example, be of service to your neighbors the whole year around. Show the love of God wherever you go.
Remember, God knows your heart. To keep the spirit of Christmas fresh and alive, look for Christ-focused Christmas activities that you and your family can participate in, and then invite your friends to these events! This is a great way to share the Good News with others, particularly those who are normally resistant to spiritual activities.
For example, we have friends that like to invite other friends to “Back to Bethlehem,” a live re-enactment of the first Christmas that puts you in the heart of the action! Imagine what it would be like to be tending sheep on a cold starry night when an angel appears to you and says:
Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” – Luke 2:10-12
Put Christ back in the season literally as well as figuratively. Make sure “Christ” stays in “Christmas” in everything you write and say.
Imagine wandering from building to building until suddenly, you come upon Mary and Joseph, and the Christ-child lying in the manger. That would be awesome.
Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. – Luke 2:17-18
Once you encounter Jesus, you forever carry Christmas in your heart.
This season, I encourage you to seek the Lord and experience Christmas in a fresh new way. When you understand what Christmas is truly about, nothing can ever take the Christ out of your Christmas.
Though the holiday season with all the hustle and bustle of each day before Christmas can be stressful, the four weeks leading up to Christmas Eve, also known as Advent, is a great time to set aside a bit of space each day to ready our hearts for Christmas — the entrance of Christ into the world.
This season of preparation always catches me off guard.
But rather than let the busyness of the season overshadow a holiday designed to celebrate God’s love and sacrifice — Emmanuel, God with us — what if I was preparing my heart to respond to the gift of Christ out of love and gratitude? Author Ann Voskamp writes:
“We’re ready for Christmas, not when we have all the gifts, but when we are ready for Christ—when we’re ready to give all of ourselves to Christ.”
Here seven ways to consider preparing your heart, not just your home, for Christmas this year:
- Spend time in God’s Word: Intentional spend time digging into God’s Word as Christmas approaches.
- Spend time in prayer: Prayer is essential in our faith walk. Prayer deepening your relationship and strengthen your faith in Christ. To simply clarify, prayer is communicating with God as you would with a close friend.
Communication is vital. It is the key ingredient to allow you to engage with the other person and resolve the conflict in healthy ways for both parties.
In the place of prayer, God speaks. Prayer is a two-way communication between man and God.
The basis of prayer is relationship.
Prayer is not a monologue; it is a dialogue.
Getting into prayer, doing all the talking and running away, does not cut it.
Leverage whatever your situation and circumstances is to deepen your relationship with God.
- Submit to God: Give God your life and your heart.
- Make The Bible the Center of Your Prayer Life: The Bible tells us, “Every word of God is pure He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him” (Proverbs 30:5). Make reading your Bible first place. Commit right now to make your Bible the center of your life. Make the declaration that no matter what you are facing right now, you can turn to Scripture and discover that God is writing a bigger story with your life, and your circumstances will not have the last say.
- Put God First: When we put God FIRST, all other things fall into their proper place. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.
- Invite Our Savior to Come in: One of the most intriguing miracles of the New Testament is Jesus making his home inside us. Let us open the door of our hearts to Him. Ask Jesus to come and show himself to you. Draw near to Him for fellowship as we go about our everyday activities and as we work on holiday preparations as well.
- Seek Him: Seek His wisdom in your life. In big things and in small things, seek Him. I will cling to the popular “What would Jesus do?” phrase for this one. If you are seeking Him for answers in your life, He will not return void. You may not get the answers you want or receive them in your timing, but he will answer.
Pray and ask God how you can best prepare your heart to celebrate the entrance of His Son into the world.
May your heart be captured by the ultimate gift — Jesus — this Advent season.
We are given part of the answer in what God declared centuries ago through Jeremiah, “And you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).
The fact that the grace of God has appeared in Christ does not mean there is no longer any need to seek Him. The wise men from the East sought Him, traversing wilderness and dangers to find Him with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I once saw a bumper sticker which read, “wise men sought Jesus, they still do.”
As faithful followers of Jesus we can expect joy filled hearts, because the heart of our Savior has radical happiness. Expectation of God’s grace excites our emotions over what we can expect in the acquisition of His good gifts.
The Lord’s blessings prompt pleasurable feelings with worship and thanks, which cause us to shout out joyful praise and gratitude to our great Jehovah Jireh! Our heavenly Father provided the birth of His Son, who with joyful obedience, gave His all for us.
Let’s remember to be a blessing at every opportunity so that we can show others the love of Jesus:
- Commit to honor the true meaning of Christmas by keeping Jesus the center of your life every day.
- Sow seeds of kindness and love by giving someone a compliment or writing someone an encouraging text.
- Make plans and budget to give to an individual or family in need this Christmas, by either providing money, food or gifts.
You make room for the joy of Jesus when you invite Jesus into your heart for healing and peace. By faith and through God’s grace, invite Jesus Christ to come into your life so you will experience the new birth of salvation, and begin to grow into a life of joyful obedience.
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what needs to change in your schedule, so you can make room for what matters most to Christ. A life with margin can experience life to the fullest.
Bible Verses About Seeking God
I have compiled 20 Bible verses to help you prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas: celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the salvation He achieved through His death and resurrection.
Please note that the following Bible verses are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.
Isaiah 7:14
“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
Matthew 1:21 (NKJV)
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:22-23 (NKJV)
So, all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Isaiah 9:6-7
For to Us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Luke 1:30-32
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus.
“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David,
“And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
Luke 1:46-47 (NKJV)
And Mary said:
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”
Luke 2:4-7
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Luke 2:8-12 (NIV)
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Luke 2:13-14 (NIV)
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God, and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.”
Philippians 2:8-10 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
Matthew 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Luke 1:30-31 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Matthew 2:2 Saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.
1 Timothy 6:17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
May the Blessings of Christmas be with you today, and always.
Merry Christmas!
The Christmas season can place a demand on our time. If we are not careful, Christmas will be over before we know it, and we will miss it. Take time to reflect on Christ’s birth and the reason that he came to die on a wooden cross for your sins and mine.
If you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I urge you to put your faith in Him and ask Him to forgive you of your sins. Merry Christmas!
Prayer
Lord, thank You that You sent Jesus, so that we may have a reason to celebrate. We celebrate your presence. We want to rejoice with You this year by honoring the birth of Christ. Help us to give freely as You freely gave your life for us. We praise You and give You all glory and honor. In Jesus’ name. Happy Birthday Jesus. Amen.
