WEEK 7: PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Welcome to Week 7 (THE END!) 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. Click here for Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5 and Week 6.
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.
attention + Joy
Distraction is real, and for some, the holidays present many situations that leave you longing to escape. Let’s pray to not retreat or succumb to the many distractions and busyness, but rather seek presence with God, yourself and others. And as you choose presence, may you be filled with radiating joy.
Here are some questions to consider:
Where am I most prone to be distracted? What triggers lead to my wanting to escape?
Is joy an expectation for you this holiday season? Why or why not?
Holy Spirit, please bear the fruit of joy in my life this season and every day following. Please keep me fixed on you, not running from my present moment but rather seeking You within it.
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.”
