There were no Christmas trees, pretty lights, Christmas movies, catchy holiday tunes, cozy fires, or soft blankets.  We didn’t have phones, computers, or a TV.  The closest family member was an ocean away.  We didn’t have holiday food.  We had electricity only a few hours a day.  It had been a year and a half since I’d seen a store.  But we had managed to get our Nativity set across an ocean and up an Amazon-sized river in our crate without breaking it, so we carefully arranged it on a shelf out of the reach of tiny fingers.  You see, we were smack dab in the middle of a swampy jungle.  Not a convenient place to celebrate Christmas.  At least, not if you had your heart set on American celebrations.  With all the trappings stripped away, could we still enjoy Christmas?

The answer is Yes!  We found out that there was plenty of love, joy, and peace to satisfy us.

We throw these words around a lot during the Christmas season.  Who doesn’t want to experience these?  But how do we get love, joy, and peace?  

Sometimes we act as tho we can buy them.  If we get the right gift for each person that matters to us, we’ll be loved more.  If we get something we’ve been wanting for a long time, we’ll be happier.  If we pay off our mortgage, we’ll have more peace.  But our resources are limited and the feelings are temporary.

Sometimes we think we can earn them.  If we do kind things, we’ll be loved.  If we have a positive outlook, we’ll be happy.  If we stop worrying, we’ll have peace.

Sometimes we give up entirely and just wallow in our feelings of loneliness.  We rationalize that there are good days and bad days and we can’t always have joy.  We glumly accept that the world’s a mess and therefore there is no peace.

But none of these approaches actually get us closer to true love, joy, and peace.  The truth is that what we crave is fulfilled by a Force outside ourselves.  We can’t buy, do, or deny love, happiness, and peace.  It comes from God.  He alone is the source.  We can’t psych ourselves into them or do enough good to earn them.  So does God just sprinkle magic dust over a few select favorites and give them love, joy, and peace?  Or should we be groveling on our faces begging for them?  Or should we give up because we don’t deserve them?

The Scriptures, as always, give us answers.   

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. . . 

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,  idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,  envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. . .

the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. . . 

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.  Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”  Galatians 6:16 ff

Not one of us would argue that we are able to generate enough love, happiness, and peace to fill our souls.  We simply have limited capability to produce these.  Our own good intentions are often not brought to completion.  We want to be loving, but we get irritated, or busy.  We want to stop worrying, but circumstances are bleak. We want to be happy, but we get disappointed and joy vaporizes.

There is a Source that never runs dry.  When we’re connected to Jesus, his love, his happiness, and his peace keep supplying our lack.  But how do we connect to this endless Source?  We stay close to him by obeying.  Even though we can’t obey perfectly and we blow it daily, yet, he is there to help us.  We can lean into him and get his strength to do the right thing.  We have his Spirit to remind us what we should do.  And we get his forgiveness over and over.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. . . I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.  When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.  

I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!  This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.”  John 15:5, 9-12

So if we need to obey in order to stay close to Jesus, how do we know what we need to do?  We find out how God wants us to act by reading the Bible, by being taught the Bible by those who are spiritually mature, by praying and listening to the quiet voice of God’s Spirit, and by spending time with others who want to obey.  And we have help to do these things each step of the way.  God, himself, gives us the desire and the ability to do the right thing.  We aren’t left alone to try to be a good person or to try to manufacture love, joy, and peace out of our own selves.

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”  Philippians 2:13

So whether we have a surplus or next to nothing.  Whether we have pretty trees or not.  Whether we have family or not.  Whether we have gifts or not.  We can still have plenty of love, happiness, and peace.

“To all . . .  who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Romans 1:7

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