It’s Christmas Time – Get Busy
It’s Christmas Time – Get Busy
Tis the season…for people to write blogs about how busy Christmas time is. If there is something that Christian and non-Christian bloggers, podcasters, artists, and Hollywood writers can agree on, it is that the Holidays are too busy, and that you need to make them less busy. Just a quick perusal of Christmas blogs led me to the following titles.
- “Five Ways to Battle Christmas Busyness.”
- “Bidding Goodbye to Holiday Busyness.”
- “Why Are You Too Busy this Christmas Season?”
- “How to Survive the Busyness of Christmas.”
- “Defeating the Business of the Holidays.”
As we approach Christmas, we will hear from all corners of our society about the dangers of being too busy at Christmas, and we will experience an almost universal call to become less busy. I said, “almost universal call” because in this space I would like to ask you to consider getting busier this Christmas season. Yes…that’s right…I would like to call us to greater busyness this December.
I’m not asking us to say yes to more events, go to more work parties, make more plans with distant relatives, or even find more ways to serve. The kind of busyness I am inviting us to is very targeted.
I want to encourage us to get busy spending time with Jesus this Christmas season. There is nothing we can do with our time that is more important and more impactful to our soul. Jesus came to earth so that you could have a relationship with Him (John 17:3). He saved you so that you could know God and worship Him (1 John 5:20). As we celebrate His birth, our greatest priority isn’t to try and become less busy, but to be busy with the one thing that truly matters, time with our Savior (Luke 10:38-42).
My personal desire for this Christmas season is that I will draw closer to Jesus than I have ever been, and I know spending time with Him is the path to relational closeness. Let me encourage you to join me and get busy seeking our Savior. The following items are examples of things we can all do to get busy seeking Jesus in the days to come.
- Get alone with your Bible and prayerfully read Matthew 1:1-2:12; Luke 1:1-2:52; John 1:1-18 and praise God for His grace and goodness.
- Spend time reading the book of Colossians while constantly asking, “who is Jesus, and what difference does His coming make in life?”
- Read the book of Ephesians through the lens of “why Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago, and what difference His coming makes in life.”
- Spend time reading 1 John, meditating on the love of God.
- As you read Jonah, pray about the mercy of God expressed in Christ’s coming and the selfish desires of people typified in Jonah’s response.
- Intentionally plan times each day to praise God for who He is and thank Him for what He has done.
- Make prayer for those around you a priority and replace less important things with a dedication to prayer and interceding for the hearts and minds of others.
- Come and encourage others and build them up at worship services each Sunday, as we focus on the character of God as seen in the birth of Jesus in a sermon series entitled, “God is.”
These are just examples of how we can get busy spending time with Jesus. Our primary objective isn’t completing the items above as a checklist, but devoting our time and energy to knowing Him more. As we make our way through December, I would invite you to join me in shifting our focus. Instead of thinking about how we can become less busy, let’s think about how we can become busier than we have ever been, in spending time with Jesus.
Pastor Matt Clausen
Matt Clausen grew up in St. Cloud and graduated from Yale University, where he earned a degree in history. He received his Master of Divinity and Doctorate of Ministry degrees from Bethel Seminary. For 17 years, Matt served as pastor at First Baptist Church of Minneapolis. In the fall of 2017, he became the Lead Campus Pastor at Friendship Church in Prior Lake. Matt is married to his high school sweetheart and they have two kids.
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