So the last time i wrote i mentioned needing a renewal this Christmas in my own personal worship. I had been challenged to find the story behind some of the carols and came across an article that I thought was written quite well and gave a new insight on responding to the carols this season. Please feel free to follow the link to the article.
Feel free to share your thoughts!
I know it may seem a little early to be writing about Christmas. However, I have been listening to Christmas music since August in an effort to pick out our Christmas program for this year, so it is not too early for me.
In all seriousness, I have had something on my heart about worship at Christmas. I know this is a personal thing and I am sure that there are others who struggle with this as well. I have found it is easy to lose true worship at Christmas in our music specifically. We join together and sing some worship songs and some carols most every Sunday leading up to Christmas. This is great. God has called us to meet together and worship corporately. But are the songs we are singing truly worship from our hearts? We sing carols that may have lost some meaning. Are we thinking about what we are singing or just going through the motions of the “Christmas Carols”. Do we look at the words “Joy to the World the Lord is come; let earth receive her King” and think to ourselves I am joyful that my king came to earth as a baby only to die for my sins so that I may be free or do we think “oh, what a pleasant song to sing at Christmas time”. This may be just me, but I want to worship and celebrate even more at this time of year. Think about what he did for us! It is a wonder that he was willing to come for us and in such a lowly state. Isaiah 53 says,
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
He was willing to come and be despised only for us to know what love is! My challenge to myself and everyone who reads this is that this Christmas we worship our God like never before. We think about the songs we sing. We consider lifting our praises to the Lord in carols, modern praise songs, classic hymns, our own personal songs and in our very lives. Make Christmas a time to truly celebrate and not just go along with what we do every year, but to break the mold. I personally am writing a Christmas song because I want to express my gratitude toward God in the way he has blessed me. We expect to be given gifts every year. Why don’t we give the gift God has already given us and turn it right back to him?
