A Christmas thought from the heart of a Christian Couselor
Dr. Mark Graham
THE GIFT OF PEACE
Jhn 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Luk 2:14
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Jesus gives us great gifts—unspeakably wonderful gifts! He is Himself a gift from God to us, and we are eternally thankful to God for the gift of His Son, and to Jesus for His willingness to become the gift of abundant and eternal life for us. This is why we give gifts at Christmas, the time set aside by our ancestors to celebrate Jesus’ birth. We do not know exactly the time of year that Jesus was actually born; but it doesn’t matter. How wonderful that this time of year was chosen—the darkest and coldest season—to celebrate His birth. Because of Christ we light up our world in the darkest month, and we warm our hearts in His love in the coldest season of the year. The love of Jesus lights up our world and warms our hearts. We will always be receiving gifts from the infinite storehouse of God’s love, manifested to us through Christ, our Lord. As we mature, we are able to see more deeply into God’s goodness and love, and we already know there is no end to these, just as there is no end to the universe He spoke into existence. Our heart is surprised, awakened, and renewed over and over again with the goodness of God. We are like children waking up on Christmas morning to many gifts under the tree. Even if we grew up poor or in unloving homes, in Christ, we have become rich, and we have love lavished upon us from all directions. The whole world and life itself, even with all its problems, is a multi-media, never-ending message of God’s love to us: the incredible beauty of nature, manhood and womanhood, children, our amazing bodies, our senses, consciousness, our family in Christ, our victory in Him over all the dark forces of evil, and even death itself which is our final victory!
Because of the gift of Christ, we have peace in our hearts. We are no longer conflicted within ourselves. We know that we have a sinful nature, and it is not good, and we cannot do all the good that we wish that we could. And we do certain things that we know are not good. We cannot be perfect, no matter how hard we try. But Jesus has died for our sins! Our faith in Him sets us free. As recorded in Rom 5:1, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And because of our devotion to Jesus, even though we are not perfect, we see that we are getting better. Day by day His Holy Spirit in us encourages the good, convicts regarding the bad, forgives, reminds us to love, and keeps us on a heavenly path. He delivers us from the curse of prosperity, which is materialism, and enables us to be thankful for what we have instead of continually desiring more and more, and feeling deprived because of what we don’t have. Jesus wants us to have peace. He gave us His peace [Jn 14:27 (above)]. When He was born the Heavenly Host proclaimed “peace on earth, good will toward man.” We do not have to worry anymore. We are realizing that, in Christ, there is nothing to worry about. He reminds us to “let not your heart be troubled,” about anything! He helps us love each other better and better, day by day; and we know that this is our purpose for being here. Jesus enables us to have peace with God. Peace with God enables us to be at peace within ourselves. Peace with self enables us to have peace with others. Our sincere desire is to abide deeply—ever more deeply—in this peace and love of Christ, and that it will continue to spread throughout our world. This is the Kingdom of God. This is what we celebrate at Christmas.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. May His love and joy fill your heart as never before this Christmas, and increase, in you and in our world, throughout the coming year.