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Written by Joel Davis
I hear it every Christmas season. There’s always someone (or a lot of someones) who want you to tone down all the Christmas cheer. You must wait until after Thanksgiving to put up the Christmas decorations, because Lord knows we wouldn’t want to get bored of the tree being up. We must phase Christmas songs into church services on Sunday because of course it would be so boring to hear “O Come O Come Emmanuel” more than just a couple of times this year. But don’t you feel that something isn’t quite right with all the rules and regulations we put around the season of “Peace on earth, good will toward men”?
Maybe it’s because it has become all too familiar to us.
I understand the problem. This week, followers of Jesus all over the world will focus on the theme of PEACE. Churches will read from Luke 2 or Isaiah 53 and light the peace candle in their advent display on Sunday morning. We will hear that although we were at one time enemies of God, we are now at peace. The Apostle writes to the church at Colossae:
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. (Colossians 1:21-22)
Or again to the church at Ephesus:
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)
Hundreds of years before Paul, the prophet Isaiah also wrote:
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
Maybe you read that and you say to yourself, “Praise the Lord! I’d much rather be at peace with God than an enemy of God!” And of course you’d be right. But some of you, like me, may be wondering what on earth it means to be at peace with God in the first place.
A study from the American Psychological Association found that nearly 1 in 4 Americans experience stress around the Holidays from experiencing or even just anticipating family conflict. I can imagine the scene: Mom, amid an explosive argument or a withering cold shoulder, shouting, “Can’t we all just have a little peace around here?!” All she’s asking for is a ceasefire. All she can hope for is that the shouting will die down.
But our Heavenly Father promises us so more when He says, in Christ, we are now at peace with Him.
Just two chapters later, in Isaiah 55, we read this:
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price. (Isaiah 55:1)
Your Heavenly Father loves you far too much to stop at simply not being enemies with you. He doesn’t just want to send you a Season’s Greetings card in December and then vanish the other 11 months of the year. He invites you to His feast! He has spiritual food for you to fill yourself with and spiritual drink for you to guzzle until you are fully satisfied in Him. We were living an impoverished life apart from Jesus, and now by the Spirit of God we call out to God as Father.
God’s Word says:
When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15)
This week, find a Christmas song or carol about peace. Maybe it’s one you’ve heard a million times. But this time, start with a Bible passage that speaks to the promise of peace we have in Jesus. You can choose Isaiah 53-55 or find your own. Now, take some time to sit in the Spirit and receive the good news of the abundance that our Father has for you as His beloved son or daughter. Receive His blessing of peace in the Overflow life and allow that to be the thing you celebrate this week and this Christmas season.
The peace of Christ be with you, friends.
