Are you feeling a little overwhelmed with the holidays? Lately I’ve encountered people who appear to be more caught up in their things to do for Christmas than Christmas itself. They are attending parties out of obligation, not desire, instead politely declining or looking for the God appointment in the parties. They are in the stores buying gifts to get it checked off of their list instead focusing on the individual they’re buying it for and choosing something with meaning. They are baking because they feel it is expected of them, rather than for the joy of baking and giving others something that says “I put time into this for you.”
Now all of these certainly don’t apply to you and I pray none of them do; however, when we feel overwhelmed by our load we’re carrying, we need to pause and ask ourselves who gave us the load we’re carrying. Did others heap it on our backs? Did we put it there? Did God give it to us to do? He promises us in Matthew 11:30 “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” By that verse alone, we have to know if we’re overwhelmed it isn’t the Lord’s doing. Either we have heaped the load on our own backs or someone else has.
So what do we do now? Two things come to mind. First, 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to cast our worries on Christ because He cares for us. We can place our burdens at His feet. Secondly, we must determine if we are going to respond to requests from our own yes and no or from the yes and no of God. When you’re asked to do something are you going to do it out of obligation or are you going to talk with Jesus about it and do what He says? The first miracle of Christ happened because men obeyed Jesus. In John 2:5 Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave the servants some wise advice we should all follow. “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you.’” If we would make this our practice in life, we would find ourselves stressed less and enjoying life more.
This holiday season do not allow culture or other people dictate how you spend your time, energy or money. Those things all belong to Jesus, so ask Him how He would have you spend them and then “Do whatever He tells you.”