They Are Trying To LOCK DOWN Your Heart For Christmas!

The frightening surge of COVID-19 cases raging across the planet has taken away our collective breath. We are careening toward a COVID CHRISTMAS that will look like nothing anyone has seen. All of us better strap in for what looks like a bumpy trip to the vaccinated goal line.
  
That is today’s very-real reality—and challenge—for EVERYBODY. But it begs this very specific question for CHRISTIANS:
  
Where is your HEART this Christmas, right now…TODAY? Is it where God wants it to be? Are you sure? Really sure?
  
Why is that question about your heart so important for Christmas 2020?
  
Because your answer will determine: 1) How much personal JOY you have this holiday season; and 2) How and to what extent you model Jesus for your family and those around you.
  
What might block us from having our heart in the right place? LOCKDOWNS.
  
Every hour brings news of another LOCKDOWN of indoor and/or outdoor eating, public gatherings, or travel…to name but a few. We are living with LOCKDOWN FEVER that creates a pall over our mood and a vise around our hope.
  
But it is futile to focus on the COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS. They are coming in one form or another. Our focus should be on what we cannot allow–the LOCKDOWN OF OUR HEART.
  
If our heart goes into lockdown, our answer to the Where is your HEART this Christmas question will surely be compromised in some way that will negatively impact our joy this month.
  
If our heart goes into lockdown . . .

• We will not be able to turn off the world and tune into God’s direction.
• Trusting God will be more difficult when challenges pop into our life.
• We’ll be tempted to put on a mask and fake like we “have it together.”
• It will be hard to trust God after we lose connection with his truths.
• We’ll be less likely to ask God to reveal our sins and seek repentance.

That should be enough for us to keep our hearts out of LOCKDOWN this Christmas.
  
I ask God to teach me how to open my heart to him and keep it from being LOCKED DOWN by the world. To show me that it is never my strength that does anything. To remind me that his peace and timing can ALWAYS be trusted, even during a COVID CHRISTMAS.
  
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
  
Will you be found reading God’s Word daily? Will your heart and mind be set on things above? Will you be able to resist falling into the world’s trap of a locked-down COVID CHRISTMAS?
  
This is a COVID KILLER verse that should be on every Christmas Card and email signature line:
  
“Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1-2