So this is Christmas!
Ok, Christmas day has come and gone and it’s New Years Eve but I’ve been thinking about this on and off for a while and in the last hours of 2013 I’ve finally had the opportunity to write this down…
I love Christmas, for all it’s spiritual significance for us and all the festive fun that surrounds it, even if those are wrappings and trappings. I have loads of Christmas music that I Iove to play at home or at work, but mostly as I’m walking the dog and this year one particular song, or rather a verse from a song has stood out for me.
“A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear”
It’s from John Lennon’s ‘Happy Xmas (War is Over) Firstly the music isn’t your typical upbeat Christmas tune, but the lyrics also seem at odds with each other. How realistic is it to enter into the New Year without fear?
This thought then grew at the passing of Nelson Mandela as many of his great quotes and soundbites flooded social media and one in particular stood out.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
He was someone that experienced that as a reality it wasn’t just a cool thing to say. He grew from his experience of fear, it even shaped him, and it did it for the better. But fear can paralyse us, it can even control us and we can come to a stand still on a journey or path that was previously moving forward. I’ve experienced it myself, and I’ve asked God to take away the fear, I’ve come away from that time disappointed at what I thought was an unanswered prayer, but God had actually done something in me.
I don’t know what 2014 has in store for you, it might be illness, you might have been diagnosed with something that you now need the courage to face this year, you might be facing redundancy or some other money related issue. It could be any number of things. What I do know is this, and it’s what I’ve experienced from God when I’ve asked for him to remove the fear.
Love
Why Love, well because “perfect love expels all fear” 1 John 4
Allow yourself to grow and to learn through the experiences, allow God to do what he wants to do in your, for your character, you gifts and the areas in which you serve.
My prayer for you, for us is that as we leave 2013 behind that even if fear try’s to get in your face at some point this year that you will know and experience the perfect love of God through Jesus.
messianicomplex 