Boxing Day
Today is Boxing Day, once a day for rewards for faithful servants, now for shopping and visiting friends. In America, it is often a day for bargain hunting and cleaning up from Christmas celebrations. The gifts are opened, the feasts’ remnants less appetizing and the children and adults cranky from excess and excitement or maybe disappointment. For some it is a day of post-Christmas depression, a time some grieve over what is missing, what failed, who’s gone. The end of 2018 approaches and perhaps you haven’t received what you prayed for. Your need wasn’t met. God HAS heard. Don’t let anxiety get the best of you. In the Matthew 6 discussion about the necessities of life, Jesus said, “…For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (32-33). Philippians 4:6 says, “In nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.” Are you seeking His righteousness (that means are you living in a way to please Him)? Did you praise Him for what he answered the last time? Do you trust Him to give you what is best?
There’s a little time left to get our homes and relationships in order for the new year. Have you left Christ out of your holiday choices? Have you ignored the prompting of the Holy Spirit to honor Him? Life is definitely more than stuff or stuffing; it’s about relationships with rewards. First— a relationship with the Savior who came to bring us fulfillment deep down in our spirits and then to enable us to build relationships with others through His love. My post-Christmas blahs usually lift when I start cleaning out closets and reorganizing cabinets, throwing out the old and putting away the new. It lifts when I get visitors and go visit others. It lifts when I give rather than get. It lifts when I laugh at myself.
Indulge in the goodies. Get some rest from your travel or company. But then get up and get on. God has a mission for you. Paul prayed for the Philippians, “I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you…for your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now; being confidant of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:5,6). Even servants get a day off now and then. But then it’s back to work—–praying, seeking direction, ministering to the hurting, providing for needs. If we put Christ first, he will perfect the personal work he began in us. Let’s go!
