Faith takes a back seat when you get busy, especially during the holidays. This episode explores holidays and faith, keeping God in the forefront—simple ways to get in the holiday mood without taking your focus off of the Lord.

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Rejoice! The kingdom of God is at hand. Friends, this is a time for rejoicing even if we don’t feel it. We are being bombarded from every side with personal, spiritual, and financial issues—some insurmountable. But nothing is too big for God, and during this time, when people turn their backs on him, we can still praise Him! When we get too busy, praise Him. When we don’t think we can go on, praise Him!

He is worthy of our praise.

I was searching holidays and faith and was shocked by what I found on a popular search engine. The first one was a pagan holiday, and there were two other pagan holidays listed. I clicked the link to see what else I’d find and was sent to a website where I had to scroll almost to the bottom to find Christian/Catholic – Christmas. Seriously? Should I be surprised?  Probably not.

But you and I? We can make a difference, first in our own lives and then in the lives of others. If we were in charge of the search engine analytics, we would ensure Judaism, Christianity, and Catholicism were front and center.

Hebrews 11:1 (Read on air.)

What a wonderful encouragement. We have been blessed! We have been given the most incredible gift: faith in God. We see evidence of this in our lives and the lives of those holy men and women of God whom we respect and admire. For many of us, faith is something we live daily. But when we get busy, we sometimes forget to prioritize the most important thing: our relationship with the Almighty God.

Christian holidays are focused on the essentials of our faith—Christmas centers on the birth of Jesus, and Easter, his death and resurrection. Whatever the holiday, even if it is Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day we can still pull in the Christian elements. Our faith transcends secular holidays, and we are reminded of the Divine. Especially since we know God is the way, the truth, and the life. He has given us a gift, a priceless gift, and that is faith.

In Romans 21:21-22 (Read on air.)

So, any time we get too busy or overwhelmed, we pray. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.” Right? The key is in prayer with faith. God will hear us always; the answer isn’t always “yes.”

Our state of mind is in direct proportion to our spiritual life. I had to take myself to task about this recently. I was feeling down, overwhelmed and really couldn’t handle the least little thing without extreme worry. I began an internal evaluation.

Checklist of Faith:

1. Praying? Check.
   
2. Attending church regularly? Check.
   
3. Thanking God during the day? Check.
   
4. Praise and worship music. No.
   
5. Spending time with the Lord. No.
   

I had plenty of excuses, and as I shared on the last podcast, “All in For God,” we need to be done with our excuses. We need to say, “Here I am, Lord!” Amen? I started staying a little later at Mass, praying yes–but spending time in quiet. My mind may wander, but I bring it back to God out of determination. The evil one doesn’t want us to spend any time with God and will put all kinds of thoughts in our heads, even good ones. Yet, we need to be strong, determined, and focused.

During the holidays, things seem to ramp up on our time and emotional well-being. People are either happy or sad during the holidays. People are lonely, or they’ve lost loved ones, and people are overwhelmed and worried about the money they don’t have to spend on gifts. But, if we give some time in prayer to the Lord and spend it with him, enjoying the beauty of the outdoors and seeing the glory of God in the landscape, it is all a way to realize this world is so much bigger than just us.

How do we get to a place to celebrate the holidays and ensure our prayer life is not overlooked? That, dear friends, is up to you. Spend some time and think about what you have to do, how you will do it in the time you have, and what you can cut out. That is one of the most significant dilemmas we have.

Matthew 15:13 (read on air.)

There, we claim hope in the precious Name of God. We ask the Lord to fill us with his joy and peace. We pray that this holiday, whether a major calendar holiday, a birthday, or an anniversary, is filled with joy. You see, joy is a decision. Faith is a decision to accept what is freely given. There are so few things we have control over, yet we do control our minds and faith.

This leads me to our challenge for this week: to be aware if we find ourselves leaving God out of our family celebrations, no matter what the time or the season. Let’s put God first, and everything else will follow.

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