As we round the bend into the next year, let us reflect on what Christmas cost us. You have often heard it said that there is nothing free in this life. Everything has a price. The question then is what has this holiday I celebrate cost me and you?
Months before Christmas I started buying gifts for family and friends. However, many could not do this, and they begin to feel the pressure as they thought about their kids or spouse and how they would pay for the gifts they wanted. Some hunkered down and determined to work more, to ask for extra shifts and maybe an extra job. However, each new hour worked was taken from somewhere. Did you skip church to work for the extra money you needed? If so, you violated Hebrews 10:25. God instructs His people to not forsake the assembling together for worship. Not only did you choose things over worship, but you also placed the priority of gifts above the greatest gift of all.
Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Did you allow yourself to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of family events and certain traditions that must be kept? If so, you were probably so tired at the end of the day that you fell into bed without thinking about the one Christmas is about. You stayed so busy you never got to the heart of your relationship with Christ. The peace that the angel announced at Jesus’ birth seems to be somewhere outside of Christmas. You push your time of study and prayer to the side, until after the holidays are over.
Christmas is usually a time for family members to get together that don’t see each other often. Did past problems with someone cost you the peace of God because you just can’t forgive them? Many family gatherings are strained because of unforgiveness. When you have this attitude, you cannot be right with God. It may cost you eternity if you are unwilling to forgive and forget. To forget doesn’t mean your memory is gone, it means you don’t allow yourself to bring it up, rehash it in your mind, or hold it against the other person.
Matthew 6:14-15 “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Did the complexity of trying to cram everything that you deemed as “Christmas must-haves” to make it a fun-filled perfect holiday, cost you the simplicity of what Christmas is about? Jesus was not born in a palace where everything was perfect and elaborate. He was born in a stable where livestock lived. No luxury or fanfare accompanied Him at His birth. He came as a lowly baby, to humble ordinary people, in a setting that we would complain about until we died. Everyone that knows us would be aware of our circumstances. The only fanfare He had were the angels as they announced to the Shepherds the Savior was born. He was a servant, who came to this world to live as a humble man, to seek and to save all who would believe. In Luke 22:27, Jesus declares to His disciples that He came to serve. In Philippians 2:7, Paul reminds us that He, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, did not seek pomp and circumstance, but he took on Himself the form of a servant. The simplicity of the gospel, and what it cost God, should cause us to humble ourselves as a servant. Our celebrations should not overshadow what Christmas is truly about.
Luke 22:27 “For whither is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.”
Philippians 2:7 “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:”
Now that you have had time to think, what did this season of Christmas cost you? Did you forfeit the peace of God by having an unforgiving heart? How about your prayer and study time, did it become easy to skip it because of demands you or someone else put on your time? Did the desire to give gifts that cost more than you could afford cause you to miss public worship? How about the simplicity of the gospel, was the purpose of Jesus coming to earth lost in the festivities and frills of the season? There are a million other things that we could point to as “a cost” because we have our priorities all wrong during this time. Each of us must examine ourselves to answer these questions. It is time to evaluate, repent, and keep the main thing the main thing!
