How to be blessed this Christmas

Three keys to living plentifully so you'll get the best gifts at Christmas

It is Christmas eve. The Silent Night, Holy Night. We gather with family, attend candlelight services, sing carols, greet one another and wish Merry Christmas. For some, this is a traumatic time, filled with bitterness and disappointment. For others, it is a hopeful time. For children, it is a time of anticipation and joy; wonder and early rising to a tree set out with wrapped presents (from Santa Claus!). Some families have little in the way of material goods, and some are choked with abundance. But all can be blessed and gain greater gifts than mere things and sumptuous meals. Here’s how to be blessed beyond measure.

Photo by Fer Troulik on Unsplash

Live like a Christian (even if you’re not a Christian)

Paul writes in his letter to the church at Ephesus, in Ephesians 4, that we should live in maturity: completely humble and gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love (v.2). Paul quotes Psalm 68:16: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people,” then explains that He is Christ, who descended to earth then ascended higher than all the heavens (v.9).

We are to rise above deceitful schemings, speaking the truth in love, and grow to maturity. Build yourself up in love, supporting all in the Body of Christ (v.15-16).

If for the rest of the year, even if we live secular lives, working, earning, providing, planning, and acting as the rest of the world, on Christmas, make time for your heart to be part of something more. See yourself as one element of the entire Church, the Body of Christ eagerly joining with the heavenly host to welcome the Messiah on earth.

A Christian on Christmas even is aware of “joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth receive her king.” Such an awareness is light, not darkness, knowledge not futility, a softening of the heart, not a hardening, a sensitivity not sensuality (v17-19).

Make Christmas a day when no lie comes from your mouth. Shed yourself of bitterness, rage, and anger, slander, fighting, and malice. Make kindness and compassion your attitude, and forgive each other, even those you know have not earned your forgiveness, because Christ forgave you.

Live like a Christian, even for one day, even if you have not darkened the door or warmed a pew at church for years—or ever. Even if you don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the son of the living God, that He is the promised Messiah, the Lord. If you just take one day to live as if you were a Christian, in love and forgiveness, this will earn you a kind of enlightenment, peace, and joy you’ve never experienced. God never fails.

Give like a King (even if you’re not a King)

King Solomon wrote in Proverbs chapter 25, “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.” (v.21-22.)

This admonition is part of a whole list of things that will make your life more peaceful and well balanced. It’s always good to read the book of Proverbs, as it’s a practical guide to being a chill person.

Helping your enemies—people who actively hate you—isn’t an easy thing to do. What you might find, however, is that people who you think are your enemies are not really your enemies. They just live rent-free in your head in the space called “enemies.” When people slight you, they are likely not even giving a thought to you or your needs and expectations. They are thinking about themselves. These people we call enemies are pretty much oblivious to our own presence, yet many times their actions—or their falling short of our own expectations—gain them outsized influence in our lives.

Nothing gets the attention of someone consumed with their own plans than feeding them if they are hungry, or giving them something they might not even be aware they need. All of a sudden you’ve gone from something in the background to someone worthy of attention, and even praise. And in that awareness, your enemy, who may be someone who actively plots against you, finds guilt in their thoughts and actions.

Some people just can’t be reached by good acts. Some dogs bite the hands that feed them. Some individuals are consumed with bitterness, and you may be living rent free in their heads as they burn with vengeance against some slight or injury, real or imagined. Doing good to them may not elicit the kind of reaction you might want. They might reject your kindness. But that’s okay. By offering kindness, you will pay the rent in your own head, or evict those who reside there without cause.

On Christmas, make a point to evict people from your head who don’t deserve to live in your “enemies” list. This point is important, as Paul echoed Solomon’s thought in Romans 12:20. Be kind to your enemies, intentionally. You’ll get way more than you give.

Love like a son (because you are a son or daughter)

Jesus gave a very famous sermon recorded in Matthew chapter 5. It’s called the “Sermon on the Mount” because Jesus saw the crowds following him, went up on a mountain, sat down, and his disciples came to join him. This is where Jesus taught the “beatitudes,” a list of who is blessed: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

The final verses of this chapter deal with loving your enemies. Jesus started by telling how it’s said “you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,” but He said, Love your enemies and pray for those you persecute you (v.43-44). You do this so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. Why? Because the Father made the world, and the rain falls on the good and the evil, the just and the unjust. Our enemies breathe the same air as we do, and thrive in the same sunlight.

We can’t unmake the world just to remake it for those we love, and exclude those we hate. It is only God who can do such things. In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” The worst people can do to anyone is to kill them. There’s no do-over for that. But God has a greater blessing, and a greater punishment: heaven for the forgiven, and hell for those who refuse forgiveness.

On Christmas, we are reminded that God came to earth so that we can all be offered forgiveness, for every sin—every wrong, every evil thing, every cruel thought, every selfish act—we ever have, or will, commit. God didn’t summon us to His throne to give account. He came to us to live among us, have his words recorded, and die at the hands of men, substituting His spilled blood for ours. He loves us, even when we are His enemy.

Paul wrote in Romans 5, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (v.6). The Christ child did not come just for the righteous, or for just the Hebrews. He came for all, especially those who don’t believe.

Paul continues, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I would die to protect my family, and my kids. Some parents would not. Some kids are not so “good.” Some of our friends, political leaders, or coworkers are not good people. They might even be objectively bad people. None of us would die for them.

But Christ did. For Christians, before any of us even believed, Christ actively, intentionally, knowingly, died for each of us. Not as a group, but as God, he knows us, individually, each one. And he said of each of us, “Father, forgive him” or “forgive her.” There is no sin that, should we seek the mercy of Jesus, He will not forgive. The “unforgivable” sin is only the one that refuses mercy.

On Christmas, be intentional and choose to love your enemies. Choose to understand that Christ came for them, and died for them. Love them because they need mercy.

What do you get for all that love? Peace with God. Eternal life. Joy unspeakable. Gifts that cannot be bought with money, or given by people. These are the things God gives freely.

I wish you a Merry Christmas, filled with joy, peace, love, and all the blessings God gives.

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