ADVENT 2023 #5 ~ Our GREATEST CHRISTMAS EXCHANGE

HAVE YOU ENTERED INTO  THAT GREAT EXCHANGE ?

 His+ Peace for your problems  . . . His+ Healing for your hurt . . . His+ Wholeness for your broken parts. . .  His+ JOY for your sorrow . . .

 His+ JOY-FILLED BIRTH into human form BROUGHT to us --- YES , to you, to me --- His+ PEACE, His+ HEALING, His+ WHOLENESS, and His+ ABUNDANT JOY. 

 That is why countless MYRIADS of the Heavenly Host appeared,  praising GOD and saying , “GLORY TO GOD in the HIGHEST and PEACE , GOODWILL toward MEN ! “

This world is TEMPORARY.  Yet  distress  seems extremely long-lasting and SO FULL OF HURT as we try so hard to control things for our own happiness.

 Have we learned to take our hands "off the controls" and exchange OUR control for HIS+ CONTROL of our problems, our concerns, our deep anxieties . . .  indeed our life ? 

 Those problems ROB us of our peace  . . . just like the devil intended that they should do.

 They ROB us of our joy . . .  just like the devil intended the problems of this life should do. 

 But WE IN CHRIST have a DELIVERER+.

When life is going well, we can easily proclaim, "JESUS is my DELIVERER+."  Rightly so !  Is ANYTHING too hard for HIM+ ?

However,  when the problems come via the curse through satan, we struggle hard.  Where has our trust in our DELIVERER+ gone ?  Did it simply evaporate as soon as major problems entered our life ?

.

 That is when we KNOW that our EXCHANGE has been incomplete with CHRIST.

We have problems that we hold onto in order to " control the outcome" ,  and that produces in us DARKNESS . . .  fear . . .  mis-trust . . . sorrow . . . sadness. 

 We cannot make nor hold onto our own happiness.  We can ONLY hold onto JESUS.  In TRUST.

 We have no power to change anything , but HE+ Who+ is all LIGHT can change everything. The darkness CANNOT dim the LIGHT.  

 Let's make that EXCHANGE out of darkness to walk in His+ Marvelous LIGHT, yielding ~ WITH PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING ~ all the controls over to our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

 Remember: HE+ loves your precious children more than you do. HE+ loves your dear family and sweet friends more than you do.  HE+ even loves you more than you do.

 The darkness is all LIGHT to HIM+.

 ¹² Yea, the darkness hideth not from THEE; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to THEE. ^{Psalm 139:12.}

HE+ can navigate you through it all . . . through every problem and every fear . . . to the Glory of GOD The FATHER. 

 HE+ is full of LIGHT because The ELOHIM created  ALL LIGHT . . .  three days before the natural sun was created. 

 Come,

lay your dark-producing fears and problems down

upon His+ Altar.

 Exchange each one of them for CHRIST'S LIGHT … the greatest CHRISTMAS  EXCHANGE freely offered to all.

 

⁶ Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto GOD.

⁷ And the Peace of GOD, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through CHRIST JESUS. ^{PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7}

 HE+ will not disappoint you.  That is the Promise FULFILLED at His+ First Coming.

+  +  +

O LORD JESUS !  I quit trying to work out this load of concerns, cares, problems. YOU+  allowed them all into my life . . . so that I could see Your+ Hand of deliverance .

  Now I place them one by one upon Your+ ALTAR of LIGHT, a sacrifice well-salted with tears.

  I relinquish my controls to YOU+, O LORD CHRIST; deal with each one as YOU+ see fit.  These concerns are Yours+; I will not fret over them again. 

 

Thank YOU+ for caring and carrying for me. Thank YOU+ for working in ways I cannot see. Thank YOU+ for loving those I love  more than I do ! 

 

Grant me now that Peace which passeth all understanding in YOU+, CHRIST JESUS, my LORD.

 

In Thy+ Holy Name and through Thy+ Holy BLOOD I lift these prayers unto THEE+. Amen and AMEN