As we head into the months of December and January, we come to a time of reflection. As we wrap up another year and begin again, many of us try to take the briefest moment to stop, reflect, and reevaluate our busy lives. We stop and contemplate the question of what do we want our lives to really be about and what do we want to take place before another year manages to disappear before our eyes.
So the question is “Where do we begin? Where do we even get started?” I’ve heard it said that if you want to figure out where your priorities are look at your calendar and your checkbook because how you spend your time and how you spend your money says an awful lot about what you find important. I’m curious of what story our calendars and our pocketbooks will tell at this time of the year. But as we reflect upon this year ahead and what we would like out of it, I think this is less a question of how we’ve been living and more a question of how do we desire to live. After all there is always a gap between stating our priorities and living out those priorities. I think there is another place in our lives that will give us a clearer picture of where our desires truly lie and I think that place to look is our prayers. I think what we pray for and what we pray about says an awful lot bout what our desires are in this life.
Stop and think about what and who you usually pray for. Maybe over the Christmas season you will be whispering a little prayer for peace and quiet or an extra ounce of sanity to deal with the relatives. Maybe you will be asking for a little bit of help to make ends meet. Maybe even a prayer for that certain gift that we have been wanting. There are countless things that could be on your mind and in your prayers, and I think what you ask from God the Father says an awful lot of where your heart and its desires truly are. This insight struck me recently as I was reading the Apostle Paul.
Through his letters to fellow Christians, Paul poured out on paper the prayers and desires of his heart. With ink and parchment, Paul demonstrated what he truly wanted, not just for Christmas, but what he wanted most for his fellow Christians. Here are some examples of Paul’s prayer life in his letters…
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…” Ephesians 1:18 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Ephesians 3:16-17 “I pray that you… may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” Ephesians 3:18
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless
until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ… Philippians 1:9-11
Paul shows here that his greatest desire is that you might grasp and take hold of the precious good news of the grace and love of your Heavenly Father that is found in Jesus Christ. So wherever this Christmas and New Year might take you, I pray that the love of Christ will go with you, so that lives of faith and good fruit might spring up the whole year through. May our Lord bless you with the hope and trust that comes through His Son, who loved you so much that He was willing to sacrifice everything for you.