WHAT Cs SEIZE YOU? by Tony Manley

The countdown is on!  The intensity and activity are ramping up and I felt very prepared…or so I thought!

I intentionally said in my heart “Jesus is the reason for my season” lots of times, scaled back on decorations, didn’t need a new something to make me feel special, and even stomped my foot inside my heart that this year it would be different. I am different!

So, last Saturday a week ago, I get a phone call and the sweet gifted person on the line begins to tell me about her decorated house – the ribbons, the fresh greens, the table, the I don’t know what else she said because I went into “uh, oh” land, I have not done enough decorating! Then, I get the call about a new place to shop with all the cutest clothes and accessories. Again “uh, oh” I am not dressed enough or my gifts I am planning are not enough.
As we – the Holy Spirit, David, and I - left to go to a wonderful evening about Christ and Christmas, I began to be seized  by:  COMPARING, COVETOUSNESS, and COMPLAINING. 

When one (me) tends to battle the gift of fear, the wrong things can “seize” the heart. I began to take a walk down the thorny path of “I’m not talented enough, not dressed enough, and I need more to be more!” My constant counselor (I don’t need to pay a counselor, when I have an indwelling One who knows the truth about me all the time) grabbed my heart and said, “Let’s take a different path.”

He proceeded to speak truth to me - to jolt me back to peace and gratitude. First, He reminded me about when Jesus told Peter, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, WHAT IS THAT TO YOU?” (John 21:22).  Basically, Tony, you look to Me and walk with Me – I have the right to do differently with each person’s life. It is not profitable to COMPARE, so be CONTENT with what and how I work in your life.

Secondly, my comforter reminded me “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” (2 Peter 1: 3)  I do not need a thing other than to be like Jesus.  To get caught up with more in my appearance -whether, home, clothes, gifts, physical being- is to live with a COVETING heart. I need to have a COMPASSIONATE and CARING heart. An others heart. 

I found the “c” of COMPLAINING comes when I am covetous or comparing.  And the “C’” of Christ – COMPASSION, CONTENTMENT, CARING come when I am decreased and He is increased.

I almost gave in that night to the seizing of the wrong “C’s,” but thankfully, 1 John 4:4 states that “the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”  This is truth!
  
The bottom line is, I will not give in or give up on clinging to “Christ” – the “C” of Christmas!  May your heart be victorious in this season!