Christmas Ponderings and Prayers

Christmastime is here.  How on earth has this year flown by so quickly?  This morning I found myself reflecting over the year and our lives and God’s goodness.  As  I was reading over the familiar Christmas texts, I saw some things that I will be pondering in my heart for a while.

For instance, I noticed in Luke 1:78 that God’s mercy is described as tender mercy.  How great is that?  He shows compassion, a divine act of favor, and doesn’t give us what we deserve, and He’s so sweet about it—gentle, loving, tender. 

·         He doesn’t remind us of our past failures and gloat over His goodness versus our sinfulness.

·         As far as the east is from the west, that’s how far He removes our transgressions, and He chooses to remember our sins no more. 

·         In His tender mercy, He allows us to respond to Him in love and gratitude without shame, fear, or dread.

·         He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve.  Rather than giving us the punishment we deserve, sent His only begotten Son to suffer and die in our place. 

George Whitefield wrote, “Let the birth of a Redeemer, which redeemed us from sin, from wrath, from death, from hell, be always remembered; may this Savior’s love never be forgotten!”  In His tender mercy, God sent His Son so that we may receive exactly what we don’t deserve:  forgiveness of sins, a relationship with the King of the Universe, and eternity in heaven with Him. 

Re-reading the familiar texts about that Redeemer who came as an infant also caused me to consider my own children.  Babies aren’t tiny, helpless, and totally dependent upon their parents for very long at all.  It seems like I blinked and my babies are nearly grown.  Phil and I only have a few more years with them in our home—Lord willing—and some of the verses I read today gave me some fresh insight on how I can pray for them as grow.   Here’s what I wrote in my journal:

·         Lord, may my children be great in Your sight like John the Baptist, and may they choose to be set apart—different from the crowds--  so they may be focused on and useful to You (Luke 1:15).

·         Lord, I’m asking for Your blessing and favor and help on their behalf because I believe that nothing is impossible with you (Luke 1:37).

·         Please help them—even now—to make choices that will honor You and will keep them from experiencing the worst of sin’s consequences.  Just as you were with John, please let Your hand be with them (Luke 1:66) and may others watch Your work through them and marvel at YOUR greatness.

·         Lord, may they experience, enjoy, and embrace your promises and true intimacy with the Savior so that they may serve you without fear, in holiness and righteousness before You all the days of their lives.  May they grow and become STRONG in spirit (Luke 1:80).

·         May they be like the shepherds who, after hearing about the babe in the manger, made widely known the saying that was told them concerning the Child (Luke 1:17), and when others hear that message, may they marvel at what they hear.

·         May they be full of faith like the old man Simeon—just and devout and waiting on You—SURE of You (Luke 2:25).

·         May Your Spirit be in them and upon them.  May they be led of Your Spirit (Luke 2:27) all of their days.

·         May they be like Anna (Luke 2:38)—faithful in service to You and Your church and eager to proclaim Your salvation and redemption.

·         May they be obedient to Your instructions like Joseph—even when they don’t fully understand or can’t see the full picture of what You’re doing (Matthew 1:24-25, 2:13-15, 21).

·         Only YOUR Son is perfect, Lord, so I don’t ask for perfection for my kids.  I do pray, though, that in Your tender mercy, You may grant that they –like Jesus—may become strong  in spirit and filled with wisdom, and may Your grace be upon them (Luke 2:40).

·         May they be like your Son when He was twelve; even now, may they be about Your business (Luke 2:49).

·         May they, like Jesus, increase in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52).

You, Lord, are greater than our fears or our challenges or our tendencies…. I submit all of my concerns for their well-being, growth, maturity, and soundness to You.  I trust You for healing and victory over things that are beyond our understanding and out of our control.  I’m believing You for sound minds, for self-control, for passions reigned in and made subject to Your will and Your plans, for zealous and fervent spirits that long for and walk with You all of their days, for an intense desire and love for TRUTH and a disgust for lies….may they walk in Your ways and be found in You, having a righteousness that is not their own but is from CHRIST.  Use them, Lord….they belong to You.

[Are you still there, dear Reader?  Sometimes the ink flows a bit fast and freely when I journal….]

When our babies were still babies, we dedicated them to the Lord in our church.  (Some folks baptize and christen infants.  Our particular persuasion of Protestantism “dedicates” babies.)  We told the Lord then, and we tell Him now, that they are His.  We recognize that they are gifts given to us only for a season.  I pray we love and train them well while we have them.  

As for their futures….that belongs to God.  I often think of our friends Jim and Marshall Lea Creecy when I consider our kids and their futures…. The Creecys have watched and prayed as God has used their children to spread the gospel on just about every continent.   For eight years, their daughter has lived and ministered in Seoul, South Korea—only 30 minutes from North Korea.  Their son hasn’t yet been to Antarctica, and I’m not sure if he’s been to Australia, but he has lived and served Jesus in some areas where he could have been killed if his true mission had been widely known.  When people ask Mr. Jim and Mrs. Marshall Lea how they deal with letting both of their kids go across the world to sometimes dangerous places, they just say that they would rather leave their kids in God’s hands across the world than to insist upon them living close by and out of God’s will.  Mrs. C. often says that they are much safer in God’s will “over there” than they would be here at home.  That’s what I want for my children…. Security in the hands of the Almighty, even if that means I have to watch Him lead them across the world. 

So, there you have it.  Ponderings and prayers during this Christmas season….ponderings and prayers for now and for days and years to come…. Merry Christmas, y’all.