Asking Santa? Why we know we can do so much better than that!
By Dean Collins
What did you ask Santa for this year? Hopefully, nothing. But many of us, maybe most of us, sat on Santa’s knee years ago while parents watched and snapped pictures of us asking him for a present. You may have had internal conflict when you became a parent and took your child to see Santa. Do I perpetrate the lie that Santa arrives with presents each Christmas? Is it just innocent enjoyment? When do I confess to the children that Santa is just a fun part of Christmas and nothing more?
I suspect most parents try mightily to give gifts our children imagine or hope for when telling Santa their desires. But neither Santa nor we as parents can deliver 100 percent of the time. As we contemplate the gift of Jesus who came to the world a little over 2,000 years ago, we can have full assurance that he delivers on his promises 100 percent of the time.
The apostle John confirms in 1 John 5 that if we believe Jesus is the Christ, we have been born of God. And the Spirit of truth testifies that God has given us eternal life and that our eternal life is not just something out in the future. Our eternal life has already begun!
“ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
You don’t have to ask again for eternal life. It has been promised to us because of our faith in Christ and our obedience to follow his commandments.
Asking Santa for what we need is a low percentage ask. But as we abide in Christ, John tells us we can have confidence that he hears our prayers and has already begun to deliver on our requests. God is faithful to all his promises.
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
As we get closer to the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we do so not just wondering if what we need and desire will be under the tree on Christmas morning. We can be confident that just as God sent Jesus to the world to save us, he will also keep every promise to meet our needs day after day, both now and throughout our eternal life.
Your time with God’s Word
1 John 5:1-15 ESV
Photo by Mike Arney on Unsplash
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