How to Remain Focused on the Holy Spirit during Christmas Season distractions,Ep 2-44
Welcome back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to talk about how to remain focused on the Holy Spirit during all these year-end holiday season distractions. This time of year can be such a blessing as we come together with family and friends and begin a new year, but it can also be such a distraction in our time with the Lord. I want to talk about how with a little planning we can keep ourselves from becoming too overwhelmed with all that is “required” of us and still plan for ourselves to move forward in 2024.
It’s easy to lose sight of what is most important whether it is Christmas or any other holiday throughout the year. Christmas unfortunately gets overrun with so many other focuses that even though we may spend time acknowledging the birth of Christ, we can still be distracted by all of our other “holiday” tasks. Then we spend the first few weeks of the new year getting back into our usual routine and getting caught up at work or on our household responsibilities. The Holy Spirit often gets set aside until we decide we have time again.
This year let’s resolve to do things differently. Let’s resolve that the One who should be directing our lives, will still be directing our lives no matter how our schedule gets filled. When we allow worldly distractions, and let’s face it, Christmas has become more and more worldly than Christ centered, when we allow all of that to direct the flow of our time and activities, the enemy rejoices.
If you are a planner, a list maker, an organizer, this episode will be right up your alley. If you’re not, just join us list makers this one time and see what it will do for you. Give us this chance to show you how we use our planning in ways to create balance in what is important to us and what is important to the people in our lives. That is a balance we have to walk every day and it gets more difficult when we have more people and more activities to include in the same hours we always have each day.
I have 4 kids and I remember dreading this time of year. This time of year meant 4 Christmas performances, which seemed to last much longer than the comfort level of my seating. This time of year meant multiple family events of which I used to host one that involved about 30 people only one year of which did I have to tell two people they needed to leave because of their arguing, work party events, much more cooking of much more time consuming dishes, many more dishes to wash, a whole lot of shopping for the immediate family, then the extended family, then there’s the almost family followed by the friends, then the last minute shopping for the people you forgot about or who got you something but you didn’t think to get a gift for them, the hours of wrapping which starts out in a happy holiday spirit but a few hours in, those presents may or may not even see a bow, and it’s taped “good enough”. I did a cookie exchange one year, if you aren’t familiar with that it’s where you make one type of cookie but several dozens of it because you ultimately go to a big party where all the cookie makers exchange a dozen of their cookies for a dozen of yours. It’s a great concept because you end up with 12 or 13 different cookies you can have for all your holiday events but making 12 or 13 dozen cookies can be exhausting. Notice I said I did it “one” year. Some people thrive on events like that, I just didn’t happen to be one of them. Yeah, for me when my kids were growing up, Christmas was a tough season. You wanted your kids to have the best each year. You wanted them to have happy childhood memories. It didn’t always work out quite the way we wanted.
One year my husband, who is the cheery one in our relationship wanted to bring Christmas joy to the neighbors. Mind you we were in a temporary location where everyone there was in transition on a military base, so no one really knew each other. Anyhow, my husband decided spur of the moment that we were going to go around as a family and sing Christmas carols to all the people living around us, probably 20 families. The thing is, none of us can sing, not even the slightest bit. The other thing is that none of us wanted to go, except him. He was insistent, so we all got dressed, we didn’t have anything particularly festive mind you, but we got dressed, we didn’t have any sheet notes so we had no lyrics, we certainly didn’t have many songs memorized past the first stanza. We had no musical instruments because well, no one could play any musical instruments. This was before we could get everything we needed from our phones by the way. The poor people whose homes we went to I felt so bad for because for the most part in the military community we are not rude to each other, we are in our own community so there is almost always an openness to each other but I felt so bad for these people because they open their door and are met by 6 people standing there who can’t sing. Let alone sing together and yet there we were. By house 3, you could tell we didn’t want to even be there. Everyone was too gracious to end our pain and my husband felt compelled to keep going and was less than pleased with our lack of Christmas cheer. He eventually gave up and let us go home but I know he was disappointed. Now we look back and laugh but it was no laughing matter then. I just asked my husband why he had us all do that when he knew none of us could sing and he said “ I thought if we all sang together, our collective voices would sound good!” Umm, no, that’s not how it works. Our best intentions can sometimes take us miles away from where we intended. So planning ahead will help to alleviate a caroling moment gone bad.
Let’s take a look at what the bible tells us about planning ahead. There is an abundance of scripture about preparation and planning but we are going to look at a handful and then go over some steps to start now. We want to start planning now so we don’t get swept into the holidays but rather remain grounded throughout and continue moving forward in 2024 without missing time with the Lord.
Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” There are times when we make plans, I used to be a financial advisor and many people would come in and want help to plan their path forward. Many of those people came in and needed help because they made some poor decisions and wanted counsel to get to their goal. We have to be willing to include the Holy Spirit and have godly people mentor us.
Proverbs 15:14, “The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.” We need to learn from our past, look at the successes and look at the failures so we become stronger going forward.
Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” If we put a plan together, we need to be disciplined to maintain what we set out to do in our plan.
Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” We want to make sure that what we are using to guide our way is based on the Bible. The Holy Spirit will never steer you wrong.
Proverbs 19:2, “Desire without knowledge is not good— how much more will hasty feet miss the way!” Taking the time to plan ahead will allow us to anticipate obstacles and prepare a way through our obstacles.
1 Corinthians 16:2, “Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. “ When we look at this, at first it may not seem like it applies to our topic, but you can see that Paul is instilling in them a way to be organized and efficient in how they are organized so things are completed before he arrives.
Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” If you live without planning, then you can plan to live without the means you will need at times. We need to include the Holy Spirit in our planning so we are sowing and reaping where God wants us to plant.
Isaiah 32:8, “But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.” We need to be honorable in how we are approaching what we are doing or what we are seeking to do. If we are not honoring to God, what are we expecting in return?
1 Corinthians 14:40, ”But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” God is a God of order and He expects that of us as well.
2 Corinthians 9:6, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” When we look at this, we generally apply it to money, but think of it in terms of our time as well. If you are willing to give of your time to another person, you are sowing into the Kingdom and the Lord will happily then give you an abundance out of His heart for you.
5 Steps to Keep Focused on the Lord during Christmas and the holiday season.
· Set aside quiet time with the Lord each day during the Christmas season
o even if it’s only 15 minutes
o Figure out how to include the Lord even in your travel
o Use this time to pray, read the Bible, journal so you remain connected
· Review 2023
o What worked, what needs to be adapted, what didn’t work, what never got off the ground
· Start to plan for 2024
o how you want to grow in your relationship with the Lord in 2024
§ Bible Reading Plans, Topical studies,
· Get your calendar ready to go for 2024
o Get your 2024 calendar set up
o Start planning ahead so you are in motion in January not deciding in January
o My meeting to help people set goals,
· Consider Becoming a Mentor or getting a mentor
o Who would you like to mentor, find them before year end, who would you like to be mentored by and talk to them before year end
There are our 5 steps in planning and we need to begin now to prepare ourselves for the Christmas season of hecticness. Work your way down through the steps and change your Christmas season this year and reap the benefits into next year.
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I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your plan to stay grounded through the holidays and into 2024. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.
If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.
As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:
· How to remain focused on the Holy Spirit during all these year-end holiday season distractions.
· It’s easy to lose sight of what is most important whether it is Christmas or any other holiday throughout the year.
· This year let’s resolve to do things differently. Let’s resolve that the One who should be directing our lives, will still be directing our lives no matter how our schedule gets filled.
· Use our planning time in ways to create balance in what is important to us and what is important to the people in our lives.
· Glimpse into how I felt in my life raising 4 kids during the Christmas season. The struggles I had with all the extra responsibilities but yet the same number of hours in the day.
· Gave you the story of our family Christmas caroling that didn’t turn out the way my husband envisioned.
· Let’s take a look at what the bible tells us about planning ahead.
o Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”
o Proverbs 15:14, We need to learn from our past, look at the successes and look at the failures so we become stronger going forward.
o Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” If we put a plan together, we need to be disciplined to maintain what we set out to do in our plan.
o Psalm 119:105, We want to make sure that what we are using to guide our way is based on the Bible. The Holy Spirit will never steer you wrong.
o Proverbs 19:2, Taking the time to plan ahead will allow us to anticipate obstacles and prepare a way through our obstacles.
o 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul is instilling in them a way to be organized and efficient in how they are organized so things are completed before he arrives.
o Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
o Isaiah 32:8, “But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.”
o 1 Corinthians 14:40, ”But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”
o 2 Corinthians 9:6, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
· 5 Steps to Keep Focused on the Lord during Christmas and the holiday season.
o Set aside quiet time with the Lord each day during the Christmas season
o Review 2023
o Start to plan for 2024
o Get your calendar ready to go for 2024
o Consider Becoming a Mentor or getting a mentor
We encourage you:
· To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment
· If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com. My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials. There is also a companion Study Guide and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book. Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.
· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies
I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!