Bringing Good Tidings Of Great Joy This Christmas

Yes, it really, truly is December. This year has gone by so quickly that it doesn’t seem possible, but we’re now in the Advent season. It’s time for all of us to slow down and refocus on the importance of Jesus’ birth in our Christian faith.

 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10-11

 Not just some ordinary tidings that will bring a little happiness into your lives. Not a spoken word here and there that might make you smile. Good tidings! Great joy! The best, the most amazing and the greatest news we have ever heard!

 That’s something to rejoice about.

 But what about those who have never heard the good tidings, so they don’t have the great joy? Those who are spending the month of December shopping and giving Santa their wish list. Their happiness isn’t joy, and it’s definitely fleeting. Once December 26 rolls around (or the afternoon of December 25 for that matter), they’ll already be looking for something else new and exciting to make them happy.

 But it’s not about happiness. It’s about genuine, lasting, eternal joy. That joy that can only come from knowing the Christ of Christmas. I think of the verses in Romans 10 that ask how people can call upon the name of the Lord when they’ve never heard His story. The only reason we’re left on this earth after salvation is to share the good tidings of great joy with everyone we can. That’s how they’ll hear - when we tell them. Then their happiness turns into the joy that we experience because of our faith.

 I pray that as we start this first week of Advent, we’ll be actively searching for ways to share the Gospel with just one person. Our great joy can overflow into someone else’s life and change it forever. And that would be the greatest gift we could possibly give them this Christmas.

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