Make this Christmas different
FORUM FILE PHOTO
Pastor Dale Baker First Baptist Church
What comes to mind when you hear the word “Christmas?”
If you’re like most people you probably have a pretty strong mental picture of what Christmas looks like. You think about gifts, decorations, family gatherings and maybe even a nativity set or two.
As a kid the first thing that came to my minds was the: presents. I’m pretty sure the world can be broken down into two types of people … people who get their Christmas shopping done early and people who don’t … like me, rushing around on the 23rd or even the 24th, looking for that perfect gift. I love the feeling I get when I find the perfect gift for someone I really care about. Sure getting Christmas presents is pretty fun, but giving someone the perfect gift is sometimes even better.
Think about the best present you ever gave. Why the gift was so perfect or meaningful? How they responded when they opened it? How you felt when they received it?
God has created us to be generous and it actually feels pretty good when we are generous.
II Corinthians 9:6-7 “6 The point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each person should do as he has decided in his heart — not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.”
Paul the writer of this letter tells the Christians he’s writing to that they should give cheerfully and not reluctantly. God wants us to be generous with other people, but he is not a fan of fake generosity.
True generosity brings joy to our lives and the lives of the person we’ve been generous with. True generosity is contagious, both for you and people around you. True generosity connects us with the heart of God, who has always been generous with us.
This Christmas. I’m trying to challenge you to live with joyful generosity. The kind of generosity that goes above and beyond that is rooted in a love for others and that transforms both you and the world around you. You were made to live generously.
Make this Christmas different.
