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| | By
Chloe West, a full-time volunteer with The Family.
Visit our Web site at
www.thefamily.org | | |
Dear one,
There are no gifts I can give you which
will fill your heart with all the special things you deserve.
So this Christmas I offer this prayer, asking the One who knows
us all to give you His very best.
In His great heart of love He knows
all we need, and in His love He longs to give us many treasures
of the spirit.
Firstly, I pray for your happiness.
Not the kind that comes from events or longed-for acquisitions,
but deep abiding happiness that will be there even if you have
nothing else special going on. The Bible calls it joy, so that
is my prayer for you—joy that lasts even when things aren't
going just right.
Next I pray for peace in your heart.
Now that can sound boring, but I don't mean a lack of excitement,
an empty feeling, or surcease from activity or challenge, but
rather a sweet knowledge that God is in control, and that He
won't let anything happen to you that you and He can't work
out together-a quiet certainty that gives you rest inside, even
when you are working hard or the pressure's on. Deep peace.
My prayer wouldn't be complete without
praying for you to have faith. Some people think faith means
blindness to reality—an overly optimistic outlook that
denies the facts. But real faith, the kind I wish for you, is
based on the most wonderful realities of all—God and His
love and His promises to you. That kind of faith that knows
that God wants only the very best for you and has the power
to bring it to pass. That kind of faith comes from reading His
Word and finding in your heart that you know it is true. That's
the kind of faith that moves mountains.
I pray for you to have wisdom and understanding,
so that you can look at life around you and then to Heaven above,
and find there the answers and explanations and guidance you
need—God-given wisdom that gives you patience and faith
for others and points the way in difficult moments.
And last but not least, I pray for
you to experience love—great love, overflowing love, patient
love, wise love, sweet love, fun love, exciting love, purposeful
love, abiding love, strong love, encouraging love, God's love
in all its wondrous forms.
For all these reasons, God came down
at Christmas in the form of a little baby to give us all these
things-happiness, peace, faith, wisdom, and most of all, love.
So my prayer is that this Christmas,
you will experience these in a greater way than ever before.
That you will let that little baby and His message into your
life. That you will take the Christ child into your heart, believe
His promises, and experience all the wonders He has for you.
I pray all this for you, because I
know that Jesus wants to give you these things anyway, because
He loves you—and I do too.
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