Do you want to feel restored? Are you waiting for this year to end? Do you feel like flipping the page on a calendar is like hitting the reset button?
If so, I’m right there with you. I took a break from writing-that lasted longer than I expected.
I realized if I had been a bit more proactive and intentional with my break, I wouldn’t have totally fallen off my writing wagon.
We find an important example of taking a proactive break in the birth of our Savior. In Luke 2:19, it says, “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
Pondering isn’t just sitting around scratching a beard. Pondering includes reflecting, but it also is much more than that. It requires carefully observing and holding close the things of God.
There are two other responses to the good news that are important when we want to live restored. The verse before (verse 18) says, “And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.” If we want to live restored, we must live in wonder of who Jesus is.
The verse following (verse 20) talks about the shepherds’ response. “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.” Living restored means we live in continual praise of what God has done.
Having a regular quiet time is a great practical way to wonder, ponder, and praise God. Since prioritizing regular time in God’s word, I’ve felt more restored and ready for the new year and what is ahead!
If we stay in wonder of who Christ is and ponder who He is regularly and glorify Him in everything we do, we will live restored.
A prayer of restoration
Dear God,
Thank you for sending your son. Thank you for your perfect plan that had humble beginnings in a manger in Bethlehem. We will never fully understand your ways and the minimal fanfare of your birth shows that. You didn’t come in all your splendor though you could have but were announced to shepherds who were the first to spread the good news of your birth. God, I ask that you would help me be like those who first heard the good news from the shepherds: in wonder of you. I ask that you would help me be like Mary, who treasured and pondered the good news in her heart. I ask that you would help me be like the shepherds who glorified and praised you! I thank you this Christmas for the good news that you came and will come again soon!
Amen
Britney Froese 