You know what I love most about Christmas? It's not decorating or singing. It's definitely not shopping and I don't really enjoy cooking or baking that much anymore, the best part for me is sharing my home and my life with family and friends. I love inviting people over to my house. I get so excited when I'm decorating or cooking, not because I want to receive a pat on the back for being a great cook or decorator. No, my excitement comes from seeing the joy it brings to others who come to share it.
Did you participate in Operation Christmas Child this year? Did you fill a little shoebox for the Samaritan's Purse ministry to give to a child in a foreign country? Did you pick an angel card off of a local angel tree? Are you secretly helping a family in need this year? Why did you decide to do that? Was it for praise from others or did it come from a real desire to give and share with others? I can almost bet, the reason you do all those things was to share. There's nothing better than sharing God's blessings and God's love with others. In fact, that's what he tells us to do.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 (NIV)
“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves “ Romans 12:10 (NIV)
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8 (NIV)
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV)
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. “ 1 John 4:7-12 (NIV)
“And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 2 John 1:5-6 (NIV)
“The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.” Proverbs 22:9 (NIV)
Want to make the most of this Christmas? Give it away. Seize every opportunity you can to give something to someone else. That something may be your time, your money, some food or toys. It may even just be prayer. Give every way you can think of. Share God's love with everyone you can,
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
Merry Christmas!
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