Black Friday! The holiday season is in full swing! Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming.
Does the thought of the approaching holidays increase your blood pressure? So much to plan, to do, trying to keep everyone content, all the while maintaining the reason for the season?
Maybe you, like me, have to fight a feeling of stress when it comes to celebrating the season!
In Philippians 4:6, we are instructed, “Don’t worry about anything”.
That’s hard to implement, though. We want everyone to enjoy the festivities, the food, have fun. We want family to mesh well, no one departing with hurt feelings, and everyone feel blessed for coming.
How not to worry?
The verse continues instructing with the how, “by prayer and petition”.
When we feel the anxiety inching in, pray. Ask God for help. Petition our loving father to direct our thoughts elsewhere. (Philippians 4:8-9 instructs what we ought to think about!)
Maybe like me, you need to petition these requests more than once.
No worries! He still wants to repeatedly report our concerns, attempting to relinquish them to Him.
We can do this, repeatedly, with thanksgiving.
According to dictionary.com, thanksgiving mean, “the act of giving thanks, grateful acknowledgement of benefits or favors, especially to God.”
We can thank God for taking our burdens. We can celebrate He’s got this! We may not understand how He might work this out, but we can rest assured He has it. We can trust His outcome.
And that we can celebrate with thanksgiving!
The holidays are by definition, “a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of sort event or in honor of some person.” (Dictionary.om)
They are a cause for celebration; they should not be a source of stress or burden.
As we approach our holiday season, let’s pray that we can indeed celebrate, and not worry about anything!
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You that I may indeed come to You with any burdens I carry and You will lift them from me. Please help change my attitude from one of worry to one of celebration. Because even when concerns exist, I can learn to celebrate with thanksgiving, knowing You have them, and will care for them. Thank You, in Jesus’ name, Amen.