The Upper Room Daily Devotion – Friday, 3 January 2014 “Back in
the Attic” Read Matthew 5: 14 “You
are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be
hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket,
but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In
the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your
good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it.(John 1:5 (NIV))
All the colorful Christmas decorations are back in the cardboard
and plastic boxes and crammed into a section of the attic. For the next eleven
months, darkness will mark their days. Christmas is extraordinary, but it makes
me lose my sanity for a few days. My family strives to bake the perfect
cookies, prepare the perfect Christmas dinner, find the perfect gift. This
pursuit of perfection worries me. I become so distracted by and entangled in
all of the Christmas trimmings that the real joy and meaning of Christmas don’t
seem to stick with me for long. When Christmas is over, I shove it back into
the attic with the decorations until next December. But God wants us to
remember that the light that Christ’s birth brought into this world wasn’t
created to stay in the darkness of the attic. The light found in the manger is
for us to carry in our hearts and to share with those we encounter each day of
the year.(The Author-Bill Pike (Virginia, USA))
Thought for the Day:
The light of Christ can shine through me all year long.
Prayer: Dear God, as we start the New Year, help us to keep the
light of Christmas in our hearts and not in the darkness of our attics. As
Jesus taught us, we pray, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us
day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every
one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us
from evil.”* Amen. *Luke 11:2-4 (KJV).
Prayer focus: Perfectionists
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