A Unique Gift

I would like to share with you a personal gift that God gave me this Christmas. Last week, on Wednesday evening, we had a snow storm that forced us to cancel church. Today we canceled our Wednesday Evening Prayer service because of our Christmas Eve service tomorrow. This is one of the first times, that I can remember, when I had every night of the week for myself. I could do whatever I wanted to do during each night of the week. Here is the gift God gave me. That is way too much time for myself! I do not need that much time and frankly, much of that time just felt wasted. Prayer Meeting was greatly missed in my life. It is a weekly opportunity to give to God and to others a part of my week and a part of my life.

It was not a gift I was expecting. It was unusual to have so many nights in a row to do what I pleased and I appreciate the fact that God taught me, once again, how much of a pleasure it is to give to him some of the time he has given to me. Having the opportunity to serve others by praying for them is truly a great way to spend part of my week. Sometimes, it does seem to get in the way of things I think I need to get done but these past weeks helped me realize just how important it is to regularly give to the Lord and others. Too much time spent on ourselves and our own pursuits is not good for us. It does not satisfy and it is not a good way to redeem the time that God has given to us. What is crazy is that the more time I had...the less I seemed to be able to get things done. When I give that time to God, he seems to multiply my efforts on the other nights. So cool.

Such a unique gift. Never saw it coming. Had it all backward...thought that God had gifted me with a day off but in reality he was showing me how important it is to give. This year, while I am celebrating God’s greatest gift, I will also celebrate this special gift from God. Merry Christmas.