When I search ‘Christmas spirit’ on Google, a wide variety of things come up; a blog or two encouraging me to get into ‘the spirit’ by decorating my house, numerous vendors that want to sell me Christmas merchandise, and a film and a Wikipedia page about Christmas Day. Now on the other hand, if I was to search the meaning of ‘Christmas Spirit’, I would get numerous blogs along the lines of spending time together with family, being charitable and showing goodwill, highlighting values such as hope, peace and joy.
While all these things are not wrong, as Christians we should live our lives by God’s standards which we find in the Bible. In Galatians 5:13-26, Paul is writing to the Galatian churches about how, since we are now Christians, we are free from our old self and should walk in Christ’s spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 says:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
This verse is telling us what the fruit of the spirit are. The fruit is the result that we should see in our lives after submitting ourselves to Christ. Paul here is listing what others should see in us as Christians, and the first three characteristics listed are generally used to define the Christmas Spirit.
So how does this implicate me and you? We should not just show love, joy and peace at Christmas. It should be a part of our lives, a part of us. We should also show long-suffering, kindness and faithfulness, no matter the season. I know that I definitely don’t show all these qualities consistently but I want to.
So this week let us allow Christ to work through us so that His Holy Spirit becomes a part of us, no matter the season.
Esther A.
rooted-mag.com 