souldare

The Hebrew word for expectation means “to lean forward, i.e. to peer into the distance; by implication, to observe, await” (Strong’s Concordance)

This time of year fills us with so many expectations. Some good and some stressful. I was reading a friend’s Facebook status tonight and she was lamenting how stressed she was, and asked the rhetorical question, “Why does this time of the year have to be so STRESSED?”

Earlier this year a friend of mine was discussing a strong sense of dread in her life. It occurred to us that this is a strategy of our soul’s enemy, that great deceiver, to rob us of joy. So instead of dread, we encouraged each other to ask God to replace our dread with expectation.

So if you are dreading the holiday season, take a moment to breathe, cease striving and remember that God is God, and he cares more about our presence than all the presents that we could ever buy or give.

Here is some advice from His word about the best gift we can offer Him:

“My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.”

Psalm 15:17 AMP