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Luke 2:15-20
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can download our service on iTunes or tune in for “The Good Word” each day on AM 1230 WSAL or on Hoosier Country 103.7 FM just after 8am. For many people the Christmas season begins with excitement and anticipation, but often ends in exhaustion and anxiety. Christmas is like other events throughout the year in that, we spend much time looking forward to it, planning for it, and thinking about it. Then all of a sudden it happens, and almost in the blink of an eye it’s over! Finally, on Christmas evening as you crash into your easy chair, or your recliner, or the sofa it suddenly occurs to you that you are quite content with the excitement you feel just watching the tiny bubbles in your glass of Alka-Seltzer meander their way to the surface! Why is it that so many people, including Christians, suffer from post-holiday stress? Does the Bible tell us how to avoid the post-Christmas stress syndrome, or how to get out of it if we’re already suffering? Let’s go back to Luke 2 and find out. The Bible doesn’t tell us how long the Shepherds visited the stable. The shepherds returned… It’s what happened next that is to be our focus, as it was theirs. I like the way one writer summarizes what could be considered a prescription to cure the after Christmas doldrums. Notice:
- WE ARE TO GLORIFY AND WORSHIP GOD. Scripture doesn’t tell us the shepherds focused on the journey from Bethlehem back to their flocks; or that they were affected by the confusion from the crowd in and around Bethlehem, or that they were sad because they had to leave the presence of the Christ child. What the Bible does tell us is, that the shepherds returned focusing on the birth of the Messiah. We are to follow their example by glorifying and worshipping God! Someone will say what we do that all the time. In reality that’s not true. If we praised and worshipped God all the time we would be seraphim wouldn’t we! Glorifying and praising God are an inseparable duo. You cannot do one without doing the other. Read 2 Peter 1:3-11. We are to glorify God because we are partakers of the divine nature! In just 3 words David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us not only how to get out of, and stay out of worldly depression and negativity, and live a life that is characterized by glory and praise to God. The last part of Ps. 42:11 tells us to Hope in God! One of the major differences between those whose life is characterized by glory and praise to God, and those who do not is the source of their hope. Please understand a life that depends on, or hopes in itself, cannot find a reason to glorify and praise God. That’s because self must be exalted above God. Now, if you understand your salvation to as God presents it in His inspired Word, then to glorify and praise God is in fact natural! Glorifying and praising God will keep us out of the doldrums because it encourages us to
- PROCLAIM AND WITNESS Luke 2:17, 18. When the shepherds went to Bethlehem and found the Christ child they told others the glorious thing that had happened to them, and that they had been told how to find the Savior. When God acts in a redeemed heart, that heart wants to share God’s goodness and blessing with others. Here’s something for you to remember: you get to choose the governing principles of your life! If you choose to allow God’s principles to govern the entirety of your life, you may suffer an occasional bout of discouragement or depression, or anxiety, but because of your desire to properly proclaim Christ and be an ambassador for His kingdom – you will immediately lift all that to God in prayer and allow Him to restore the joy of your salvation. If you choose to govern your life according to your own principles then God will allow you to live in your misery! The choice is yours!
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