It’s the most wonderful time of the year, or so the old Christmas song goes. Yet it doesn’t always feel that way—the hectic holiday schedule, financial concerns, family pressures, and emotional wounds are just a few reasons. But the Christmas season offers a unique opportunity to look backward at the coming of our Lord and Savior, but also forward to the goals we want to accomplish in 2016.  Those goals: Be more like Christ in 2016, than I was in 2015; study and apply His word to my life; and serve according to His will. 

What is forgiveness? A definition for forgiveness could be — giving up my right to hurt you, for hurting me. It is impossible to live for any length of time without getting hurt, offended, misunderstood, lied to, and rejected. Learning how to respond is one of the basics of the Christian life. The word “forgive” means to wipe the slate clean, to pardon, to cancel a debt. It is important to remember that forgiveness is not granted because a person deserves to be forgiven. Instead, it is an act of love, mercy, and grace.

Life is tough enough and filled with enough problems without dragging past ones into it. So, we have to let go of past problems if we are to find peace. No matter how much you dwell on, or stress or grieve about the past, you cannot change it. So you have to accept what can’t be changed and focus on what’s ahead, not on what’s behind and lost.

The message of Christmas is a message of peace, not political peace or social peace, but spiritual peace–peace with God. The Christmas birth set in motion the sacrificial life of Jesus that would culminate in His death on the cross. As Isaiah 53:5 says, “… the punishment that brought us peace was on him.”  We have peace with God in our life because the God of Heaven became flesh and took the punishment we deserve, to give us a salvation we do not deserve. God’s favor–God’s grace and peace rests on each of us because of Jesus. 

What is a belief? The dictionary defines it as: 1: a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing; 2: conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence. But what does it mean to believe? Some common idioms include: “I will believe it when I see it with my own eyes.” Or  “I can’t believe it!” Or “I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was four.” It doesn’t happen easily, but when people start believing amazing things happen. Former Bear coach Mike Ditka said that “ before you can win, you gotta believe. And once we started believing in each other, suddenly the chemistry hit and ‘boom’ good things started to happen.” Likewise, when Christians believe, and when the belief motivates them to take action,  good things will happen and God will be glorified.