what Christmas is all about...

Precisely wrapped packages.

Stockings.

Bright colored lights.

Jingle bells.

Snow.

Santa Claus.

Sales and bargains.

Extravagant parties.

Delicious food.

Family time.

Tradition.

What do you think of when you think about Christmas?

Please do not misunderstand me. 

I LOVE all of these things.

But Christmas is about so much more.

It is about a Savior who willingly chose to become a man.

To live on this Earth to be betrayed and sacrificed.

It is about the birth of Jesus Christ.

I know many only believe he was a good man.

I believe he is the Son of God.

His life and His message are profound.

And I think that gets lost in all of the trimmings and trappings.

I am not an eloquent writer.

And this is not coming out the way I want it to.

But hopefully, you get what I am trying to say.

Jesus loves you.

He died for every single person reading this post.

Even if you only believe he was just a good man.

I think it was summed up best in A Charlie Brown Christmas:

standing in the gap

Have you ever heard a sermon that really just touched your heart?

That is what this morning's message was like for me.

Pastor T was talking about "standing in the gap."

Standing in the gap means to go before God on others' behalf.

In order to stand in the gap you need to be faithful, unselfish, and persistent.

Faithful in believing God's will is best.

Unselfish in our motives for praying for others.

And persistent in our prayers by not giving up when things do not happen on our time table.

We all have a tendancy to just pray for the people in our circle,

but we need to develop a city-view, country-view,

even a world-view when it comes to lifting others up in prayer.

One thing that really convicted me was when the Pastor pointed out that this means that we also need to stand in the gap for our "enemies."

You know how there are just those people who rub you the wrong way?

And when something bad happens you think, "Well, what comes around, goes around," or "They are getting what they deserve."

This is where my toes started hurting;)

We are not supposed to think this way.

We are supposed to pray that God would bless them just like we do for our family.

Sometimes that is just REALLY hard to do.

Especially with those few people who live to make others miserable,

but God loves them just like he does everybody else.

I do not think I can really convey just how much this message convicted me and made me evaluate my prayer life.

I used to be one of those people that stood in the gap.

But somehow over the past few years, I have gotten into the horrible pattern of coming to God with a to-do list or "saving" the last 5 minutes before I go to sleep to actually pray.

I make excuses about being busy with school and work.

But that is all they are...excuses.

Prayer does not have to be complicated.

Prayer is anytime we spend with God.

There does not even have to be words;

He knows our hearts better than we do.

I am going to be working on my prayer life and hopefully become one of those that stands in the gap for others again.

If you have made it to the end of this post, thank you!

I hope that I made a little bit of sense and that you were blessed by it.

{click on pics for source}