Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Nope, can’t pass up the opportunity to do one more devo on this beautiful song! Here are my Holy Spirit stirrings for today:
1) Christmas is all about His love. “Truly He taught us to love one another…” Jesus emptied Himself for us. He came to walk in our pain, to heal us, to rescue us from our darkness. He came to teach us the law of love by flawlessly modeling selflessness for us. What are some practical ways we can imitate Him this Advent season? To whom can we show some extra love to this month? Which individual faces come to What are some strategies we can use to teach our children that this season is not about getting?
2) Christmas is also about freedom. “In His name all oppression shall cease.” Consider the following words from Zechariah about Jesus’ birth – that eternity-altering moment that split history in two: “For He has visited and redeemed His people… to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear…” (Luke 1:68,74, NKJV). Did Jesus come to deliver Zechariah from his people’s physical enemies, the Romans? No. Jesus lived, died, resurrected, and returned to heaven, and the Romans kept on with their oppression of the Jews. Political liberation was not Jesus’ mission. Instead, He came to set Zechariah – and all of us – free from our spiritual oppressors.
“Chains shall He break” for us. Chains of fear, chains of selfishness, chains of greed, chains of resentment… all the varying kinds of chains that hold us back from living free on the inside. As His supernatural power collides with our chains, they fall off. He leads us into the glorious liberty that empowers us to love like He does, selflessly. This Christmas season, may He teach us to love our brothers and sisters in a way that flows out of the freedom He came to earth to grant us.
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Do you have any special Christmas traditions that involve reaching out to others? I’d love to hear about them! If they are made difficult by the pandemic, how can we adapt them to our current reality?
Feeding On Jesus 