A Christmas Devotional
“Walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us (Ephesians 5:2).”
This Christmas, as I consider the most perfect gift, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I am reminded of the reason that God gave us His Son. Jesus is the gift God gave us out of His love, and out of that same love, we are the gifts that are from Him, through Him, and to Him. Yes, He tells us to walk in love, to love others as ourselves, yet what does loving ourselves and others look like? To me, it begins by understanding our value and worth in Him and living out of that identity. As believers, our identity is in Christ (Romans 6:1-14) and nothing more or less. As humans, He created us in His image (Genesis 1:26). He designed us as reflections of Himself, to represent Him on earth and to walk in relationship with Him forever. There is no greater purpose and calling than that. As His creations, we are all uniquely and perfectly valuable and worthy. Our value comes with our humanity. Our ability to walk in relationship with Him forever as we were created to do comes as a result of His grace by faith, His gift to all who believe (Ephesians 2:8-9).
He knows and sees our sins, and for our sin nature and the fallen world He sent His Son. Jesus came so that we may have life (John 10:10), abundant life with Him full of inexplicable joy. Why do we settle for less? In our flesh, we judge, compare, and perform, attempting yet failing to attain perfection. We believe the lie that we are not good enough, not worthy. We convince ourselves that we need to do more and be better in order to prove ourselves worthy. We fail to see ourselves from God’s perspective. We see ourselves through our own lens, and we live out of that lie.
This Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Lord, may we remember whose lens really matters. God, our Creator, is the one who defines us. He gives us the opportunity to be identified with Christ. As we celebrate His birth, we also acknowledge the cross where He willingly and lovingly gave Himself up for us. He did so in order that we may be united with Him (Romans 6:5) and take on His nature (2 Peter 1:4). That is love. He pours His love into us so that we may pour it out onto others. As we believe who we really are, we live out of that truth. We begin to see ourselves and others as God does, to be valued as we are, and to see through sanctification who God is making of His beloved. There is beauty in the ashes of weakness, flaws, and imperfections. Let us spur and encourage each other on to the radiance that God sees, the glorious us that one day we will fully be. In the midst of sin, may we see flashes of His glory in ourselves and each other. Tim Keller explains it best: “We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Christ Jesus than we ever dared hope.” May we walk in love as we are greatly and perfectly loved.
By Trina Murray
