WEEK 1: PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Welcome to Week 1 in our Preparing for the Holidays series. If you’d like to read the introduction to the series, read Start Here: Preparing for the Holidays.
Each week we’ll focus on two actions to center as we pray. Throughout this series, we’ll also focus on a passage from Colossians 3:12-17. You can read it in full at the end of the post.
Reveal + Confess
We start here because while not always appreciated, confession is so necessary in our discipleship and to be people of hospitality, we must also be people of confession. And while for some, the idea of confession can instigate feelings of shame and fear, truly, as 1 John 1:9 promises, in it, we find forgiveness and freedom. So let’s focus our time this week on seeking the Holy Spirit to reveal where we may be holding onto offense, fear, woundedness or whatever else could hinder us from showing Love and care to others this holiday season.
Here are some questions to consider:
What comes up within you when you think about the coming holiday season? Take a moment to truly sit with the question and notice what arises.
Is there any grief, fear or anger that arises?
What about joy, anticipation, hope? Something else?
Are there family members, friends or anyone else that you’re nervous about seeing?
Who are you looking forward to engaging with?
Is there anyone that you need to forgive or ask for forgiveness?
Is there something you’re holding onto that needs to be entrusted to God?
Read below or listen to this passage and meditate on it.
“Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
