Same dress, same hair, same smile, she shared the stage with the others, but she sat while they stood. She had my heart before I knew her name, just like my grandchildren. I enter a room with my heart extended. I can’t help it. I used to think I simply had a soft spot for the underdog and maybe I do, but now I’m convinced it has more to do with Jesus. Haven’t you experienced a heart-level connection you just couldn’t explain with someone you’ve just met?
“We love each other because he loved us first.”
1 John 4:19 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1jn.4.19.NLT
“Our love for others is our grateful response, a fitting reply, to the love God first demonstrated to us.”
1 John 4:19 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1jn.4.19.TPT
I clicked the link to buy my ticket for the ballet. I only needed one. I could have chosen any of a few dozen seats available, but I narrowed it down to two single seats on the aisle near an exit. I placed one in my cart and then had second thoughts. Front row is sometimes too close so I picked one halfway back. I arrived just before curtain and someone’s coat was draped over my chair. I glanced at my ticket again before addressing the couple next to me.
“I think this is my seat.”
His wife laughed as he politely removed his jacket, saying, “He told me nobody will buy a single seat.”
I smile as I remember our brief encounter and I thank God, because in His providence, He placed me exactly where I needed to be on that rainy Saturday afternoon. We talked during intermission, just long enough to recognize how much our families have in common. We both know how to intercede for the other because we have faced such similar circumstances, and we each feel less alone. Our talk could have easily remained small and casual, but God had other plans.
“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.
He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.
When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.1.3-4.NLT
When have you been encouraged by someone with a ready smile or kind word? When have you allowed God to use you to deliver a kindness or bring comfort? Christmas gatherings and preparations provide more than the usual number of opportunities to be mindful of our neighbors.
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you:
Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.
Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
Instead, fix your attention on God.
You’ll be changed from the inside out.
Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.
Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you.
Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God.
No, God brings it all to you.
The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.”
Romans 12:1-3 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.12.3.MSG
“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!”
Isaiah 9:6-7 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.9.6-7.NLT
The zeal of the Lord is replaced in the New Living Translation by not one but two synonyms: passionate and committed. The passionate commitment of the Lord will make it happen! God chose the sign of the virgin birth and made it known hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, and He has been faithfully keeping His Word for thousands of years.
“For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse.
But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
Romans 8:19-22 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.8.19-22.NLT
As we celebrate the birth of a baby born King of kings and Lord of lords this Christmas, may we lead with our hearts.
“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”
Hebrews 10:23-24 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.10.23-24.NLT
“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NLT
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