What Comes First in Your Christmas?

It is so fascinating to realize how much we miss every time we read the Christmas narrative. Matthew and Luke give wonderful accounts of the birth of our Savior. Yet, we often read them and skip over some very important words. It is really amazing the truth that can be found when taking the time to read Scripture carefully.

Matthew 2:11, “After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (NASB).

This portion of the narrative is describing the wise men and their encounter with Christ. I’ll spare you the details on the various views pertaining to who these men were, because I want us all to realize something that is more important. Notice the first word in the second sentence…Then.

So check this out…the wise men find the place where Christ has been born. They arrive and enter. They see Christ and His mother…a little boy…and they WORSHIP! The greek word for worship used here is proskuneō which means: prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore) (Strong’s 4352 from 4314 and a probable derivative of 2965).

Check this out…the wise men came in, and first fell down and paid reverence to Christ and adored Him. Before anything else was said and done, they honored the Christ-child by giving Him honor and worship! Then, they gave him their treasures!

Here is the truth that I see here: the highest and first priority our in life (not just the holiday’s) is to worship God; we present our “treasures” to Him secondarily.

Here are two things I think are applicable here, one pertaining to our everyday life and one pertaining to this Christmas season (there are many applications to this truth). 1) Is your daily, highest priority on worshipping God and adoring Him, or is your priority trying to “do things” and give Him your “treasures”? 2) This Christmas season, is your attitude and priority about other “seasonal” things, or is it about worshipping our Savior because we are celebrating God sending His Son to die for our sins?”

It’s tough…so often I want to “do things” for Jesus to try and earn good standing and favor from God. It’s my natural, fleshly, legalistic heart. Yet, God desires us to come and worship Him! So often when I refocus my priority and simply worship God through my life, my “treasures” and “good things” become an offering, not a requirement. However, it won’t happen unless my heart is postured towards God in worship.

Where is your focus this Christmas season? Is the priority in gifts, helping others, or being “awesome” in your holiday spirit? Or is the priority in worshipping our Lord and Savior…who came to this earth to die on the cross for sinners like you and I, in order that we can have a relationship with our heavenly Father for all eternity?

Worship…THEN…gifts!

As You Wish

A couple days ago my wonderful girlfriend took one of the young ladies who is in the high school ministry I intern for (my “adopted” little sister) out for a little “girl time.” They chose to paint pottery at As You Wish (perfect girly thing to do). They spent about an hour and a half choosing and painting their piece of pottery with “great” success (let’s just say my girlfriend’s didn’t turn out the way she wanted). When I picked my girlfriend up and asked how it went she responded,

“Great fun. Great time. Poor choice of thing to do to get to know her and talk. We were so focused on our painting that we couldn’t really talk. If we focused on our conversation, we would lose focus on our painting and it would start to suck.”

I chuckled a little as we discussed that it was still a great first step in engaging with the young lady and that nothing but good would come from it. She kind of disagreed with me because she felt that the relationship being strengthened was not anywhere close to what it could have been. This began to make my brain think about something. In Psalm 73:25-26 it says, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (ESV). I would encourage you all to dive into this Psalm (as a whole) to get the context of the author’s declaration. It makes these verses THAT much more impacting.

Here is what gripped my heart: how often we act towards God in the same way my girlfriend and the young lady acted towards their relationship “building.” We try to give God everything; our time, our hearts, our money, our family, our relationships, our trust, etc. We all know God calls us to love Him with “all your heart, all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27a ESV). Ultimately, we “strive” to give God our everything so that our relationship with Him will grow at the maximum capacity it can. Yet, don’t we often times (and I say “we” because this was my conviction) fall into the mindset and heart attitude that we can still give God our attention and feel like our relationship is growing, but at the end of the day we realize that we’ve only given God a percentage of our hearts and that our relationship with Him has suffered because of it?

The author of Psalm 73, Asaph (not David), despite what was going on around him, chose to say that there is NOBODY that he wants and desires more than God. Nothing in this world…everything… relationships, riches, success, good looks, friends, family…is worth the distraction and despair of pulling him away from God. He declares that there is nothing on earth that he wants more than God. Asaph even realizes that there will be times when just his own personal desires and self-destruction will pull him away (“heart and flesh may fail”) but God will always be enough and worthy to captivate his attention 100%.

This is all well and good. I’ve even found myself saying, “Great Asaph…good realization you super-Christian dude! Way to have that mindset…but you have no idea what that means for me. That means I have to give up finding satisfaction in some pretty awesome things! You don’t even know!”

I think Asaph would turn to me and respond, “What is it worth? Have you not realized the end of those things? They ultimately will leave you empty. ‘…then I discerned their end’ (verse 17). When has God failed you? Never. When have those things you put your satisfaction in failed you? Always. What is it worth?”

At the end of the day, I have realized that if I am finding satisfaction in anything except God, I am cheating God and cheating myself from the greatest and most amazing satisfaction and life ever. I am cheating God’s goodness and mercy. I am cheating God’s blessings and plan for my life. I don’t want to be like the girls at As You Wish who walk away at the end of the day and regret it saying, “I wish I would have given my complete attention and satisfaction towards building that relationship.”

Who do I desire or what do I desire on earth besides God? If there is something, then we have to ask, “What is it worth?” Is it worth cheating God? I would submit that it is NEVER worth it!