Life is only complete when you hold the Savior in your heart.

“I have seen the Savior You have given to all people.” Luke 2:30 NLT.

Like Joseph, Simeon is another lesser noticed person in the Christmas narrative. But he shouldn’t be. Uniquely, he was a man with a focus on something more than that with which others were content. “Simeon . . was just and devout . . and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” Luke 2:25-35 NKJV. God’s Spirit rests where He feels welcome. What little is known about Simeon is still remarkable; his testimony was that God had spoken to his heart that he would live to see the Messiah. “The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.” Vs. 26 NLT. Simeon’s heart held a promise; his life had a purpose; his focus was clear.

Generations in Israel had waited for the promise of Messiah. God’s whisper in Simeon’s heart set the course and priorities for his lifetime. Imagine living your life with such a clear, persuasive purpose that supersedes every lesser consideration. See Philippians 3:13-14 NKJV. While others busied their days aimlessly or with trivial concerns, Simeon had a heart with a single focus – to see Messiah, Israel’s hope and salvation. He was single minded, strongly focused, fervently anticipating, patiently waiting, and actively pursuing.

That word in his heart brought Simeon to the Temple precisely at the moment Joseph and Mary arrived with the baby Jesus, now only days old. This was providence not coincidence. “That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord . . Simeon was there.” Vs. 27-28 NLT. Simeon was there, exactly when and where he should have been, because he was attentive to the Spirit’s direction. His life-long quest was fulfilled as he held the Savior in His arms. God can bring you where you need to be for the joy of your life to be fulfilled anew.

Imagine Simeon’s joy, “Lord, now I can die in peace! As you promised me, I have seen the Savior You have given for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and the glory of Your people Israel.” Vs. 29-32 NLT. Life is only complete when you hold the Savior in your heart. “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him . . you believe in him . .  and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8-9 NIV.

That’s Simeon’s story, but my concern today is about your story, and mine. This Christmas cannot be what it could be, unless Jesus is the heart of your expectation and celebration. There is no better place, ever or anywhere, than when and where your yearning successfully concludes with giving yourself to the Savior who gave Himself for you. Read Titus 2:11-14 NIV/Galatians 2:20 NKJV.

This Advent, the Angel’s announcement to the shepherds is also to you, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be to all people. Today . . a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11 NIV. This is my Christmas focus: Christmas is an event too glorious not to be joyously celebrated with abandon, and too precious not to be gladly shared with one and all.

My prayer for you this Advent is that His holy day will be at the center of your holidays.

Devotionals 1 Peter 1:8-9, celebrated, Christmas focus, focus, Galatians 2:20, holidays, holy day, joy of life, Luke 2:10-11, Luke 2:25-35, Messiah, priorities, purpose, Savior, Simeon, single focus, Titus 2:11-14

“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live.” Galatians 2:20 KJV

“Spiritual life comes, not by survival at any cost by any means, but in willing sacrifice.”

My thoughts today are about “survival instinct.”

People have an amazing instinct for life. No effort is spared to avoid harm and extend life, without regard to cost or other considerations. Innately, each person knows they were born for life not death, even eternal life! Solomon wrote, “God has also set eternity in the hearts of men.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV. Death is an imposition that sin and disobedience imposed into our world from the beginning.

Your natural instinct is self-preservation, whatever the accommodation you have to make to anything or anyone else. Did you know that your body takes drastic steps to survive? The “fight or flight” response is one of those instincts; when faced with stress or danger, a biological trigger helps a person decide whether to stay and fight or whether to flee the danger. Both are mechanisms for survival.

When you are endangered, the “brain’s hypothalamus is activated, releasing a series of chemical releases and nerve cell responses that prepares you for surviving the impending threat. Adrenaline is released into the blood stream, where your heart rate increases and oxygenated blood is pumped more quickly into your muscles and limbs. Your awareness, sight, and impulses all intensify and quicken to facilitate your odds of survival.”

The problem is that your natural, survival instinct conflicts with a greater spiritual principle. God made you to love and cherish life, but not for yourself alone. Life that is lived for the moment only, or your pleasure, or for yourself alone is a life not worth living. Paul had a clear priority when he wrote, “My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus . . the work of telling others . . about God’s wonderful kindness and love.” Acts 20:22-24 NLT. Make your life worth something worthwhile that touches eternity.

Spiritual life comes, not in survival at any cost and by any means, but in willing sacrifice. In 1707 Isaac Watts wrote, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.” When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, 1707. “If you try to keep your life for yourself you will lose it. But if you give up your life for Me, you will find true life.” Luke 9:23-24 NLT.

Jesus said you save your life by giving it to God; that is counter-intuitive to everything that is natural to you. Yet this is the promised result that the apostle Paul discovered, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 NIV.

My prayer for you today is to invest your life in spiritual pursuit of eternal value.

Devotionals fight or flight, Galatians 2:20, Isacc Watts, Luke 9:23-24, natural, survial instinct

“I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Galatians 2:20 NIV

“It is arrogance to assume that your life is yours to do with as you want.”

My thoughts today are about being “fully alive.”

It is easy to assume a mistaken idea of what it means to be fully alive. Some think that means to live as you want with no restraints, free to do what you want when you want and to whomever you want. At the root of such an idea is wrongly thinking that your life is yours to do with as you want. Is that ever really true?

Here’s what the Bible plainly says as Paul writes to Christ-followers who were living carelessly and independently, “You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT. Consider this, “Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that . . you were redeemed from the empty way of life . . with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish.” 1 Peter 1:17-19 NIV. What a price God paid for you! If you rightly belong to another, there is a debt of love, obedience, and service you owe.

There is a measure of that principle to be seen in ordinary employment. You can’t accept another man’s wages and then work as you please, and if you please. Even more so, this principle is very true in marriage. You voluntarily embrace sacred vows that come with restraints and accountability to live for another’s best. You know what happens to the success of either of those if you reserve to yourself the right to live as you please. Human nature accepts, even expects, privilege while demanding every option and ignoring any personal obligation. Life will not work that way for you.

The best life is found in doing what you should, not as you would - joyfully doing what God wants rather than what you or others want. Your life came from God and daily comes from God. Do you not then owe Him everything? Read Romans 11:33-36 NLT.

As a teen, I learned a simple chorus: “Without Him, I could do nothing; without Him, I’d surely fail; without Him, I would be drifting, like a ship without a sail.” I have found those words to still be true. Faith is not an attachment to your life; it is the heart and core. From that, every other thing revolves.

Trying to live by your clever wits, depending upon your own strength, obeying any impulse, and pleasing yourself first and foremost just does not work out in the long haul. Life can be tough when you try to live it on your own terms. There is a sweet surrender when you come to the end of yourself, and there find that God is your sufficiency. Read John 6:66-69 NIV.

Have you heard a person say someone “doesn’t have a life?” The Bible describes such a person, “who lives for pleasure (and) is dead, even while he lives.” 1 Timothy 5:6 NIV. Isn’t that a sad description? But that’s true of some, who are simply unwilling to allow Christ to live in and through them. Here’s the rest of Paul’s words, “I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:19-20 NLT. That’s the only way to be fully alive, as you were intended!

My prayer for you is: that you know what life really is and where that alone can be found.

Devotionals accountability, arrogance, Christ in you, debt, debt of love, Galatians 2:20, life, privilege, sufficiency, sweet surrender