Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Christmas Devotionals

Our home church in Windsor, Nova Scotia publishes an Advent devotional booklet each year. We were pleased to be asked if we would again like to contribute. I sent two offerings for the booklet and thought I'd post them here for you to read as well. We were limited to just 150 words, which I found to be a challenge... I do tend to prattle on. :0)

Below you will find the devotional for December 14th.

December 14
Reading: Matthew 6:24
Two Masters

"No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." Matthew 6:24

We live in a materialistic society. Life and love are defined by material possessions. Every Christmas, with increasing ferocity, we teach our children (and each other) this very lesson. We purchase mountains of junk, and allow ourselves to be so distracted by stuff that we entirely neglect Jesus Christ.

Christ defined true love for us at the manger and demonstrated it to us at the cross. He sacrificed heaven to come to Earth. To be born, to suffer and to die. To spite this we’ve allowed the World to define life for us in our possessions.

What if, this Christmas we actually sought to serve God and not pander to greed. This year sacrifice, but sacrifice as service to God. You may enter the New Year with less stuff, but when life is all over, God will not be remotely impressed by your collection of things. Your relationship with Christ is far too valuable to be traded for the sparkly trinkets of this world.

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, I know that the purpose of my life is to bring honour and glory to You. May I
seek always after You, and not be distracted by the things of this world. Help me to allow my ‘self’ give way to your glory.

No comments: