Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “The Presence of the Lord”
Our Bible verse for today: “The mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then My faithful love for you will remain.” Isaiah 54:10 (NLT)
Our thought for today: “Be Jesus to someone who is struggling.”
As we begin the week of Christmas there will be much celebrating and festivities. Most people will be in high spirits – but not all people. For many, Christmas is a time of increased loneliness and depression.
Some have lost loved ones over the past year and the thought of going through this season of celebration without that loved one is almost more than they can bear. Others live alone and are lonely as a daily reality all throughout the year but at Christmastime, with its increased emphasis on family gatherings and fun times with good friends, the fact that they don’t have family or friends becomes increasingly obvious and even more painful.
It’s easy for people in those situations to feel unlovable and deficient in some way. They begin to feel as if since everyone else has family and friends and they don’t, there must be something wrong with them. And if everyone else can be so happy but they can’t, they feel that their life must be of a lower quality and of lesser value. This is why there are so many suicides this time of year.
The truth is that every person is of inestimable value to God and is greatly loved by Him. He wants to be present to them in a real way and He wants them to be aware of His love for them. But has been noted so many times before, the love of God is most often manifested in real and tangible ways through the people of God. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. It is through us that He ministers to the hurting, provides for the needy, and comforts the lonely. This is the work and the mission of the church (maybe especially at Christmastime when it is needed more than ever).
Look around you today; consider the people the Lord has placed in your path; ask Him to make you aware of someone who is sad and lonely and struggling through this season of festivity and joy. I encourage all of us, as the followers of Jesus, to show the love of Jesus to someone who is hurting at struggling. You may be their lifeline. It could be through you that that person realizes God really is with us.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 