The Gift of Forgiveness

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Oh to receive the gift of forgiveness! Forgiveness is a choice, yes and sometimes forgiveness is a gift, a beautiful gift! Having struggled with prolonged unforgiveness with someone close to me, I know what it does to a person. Bitterness, anger, and impenetrable thick walls grow in our hearts and there is little hope for anything different.

    This prolonged unforgiveness was met with the gift of forgiveness. It was something I asked for. I did not ask for it nobly or humbly but desperately. My prayer was, “God, I can’t do this, I don’t think I even care if nothing changes. So, if you want something to change, you’ve gotta do it.” God did want something to change and He gave me the gift of forgiveness. Utterly unexplainable other than “God did it.” This is not a formula prayer by any means, just my experience.

    Forgiveness is a choice, definitely. Forgiveness also comes in the form of a gift. Is there prolonged unforgiveness in your life? How have you prayed about it? Do you even care? No matter how you pray, I encourage you to make it an honest prayer, no matter what. You never know when forgiveness may come as a gift.

**Sit in silence again for as long as is available to you.**

The Call and Gift of Joy

**Please take one minute to sit, breathe deeply and seek quiet.**

    Joy is both a choice and a gift. Most things seem to be. When I say it is a choice I do not mean that it is an easy choice. In reality choosing joy can be a very challenging, seemingly impossible. To choose joy requires a perspective and strength that is beyond us. To choose joy means that we choose it in the good times and the bad, in the ease and in the challenges. Choosing joy is not circumstantial but it sure is easier to choose it when life is easy!
    Joy is also a gift. An overwhelming, supernatural, mysterious gift that takes no effort on our part, we merely receive it. Oh how I desire that we would all have the gift of joy!
    My prayer is that you would have joy today and this Advent season. Joy that overwhelms, joy that sees farther, joy that is lived out more deeply and richly in the midst of wherever you are in life.

**Please take as much time as is possible to sit and reflect.**

Choose to Rest

**Before you begin reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for 1 minute.**

Rest. May you choose rest today. Sometimes you are forced to rest and other times it is a choice. It is funny because we think that we would always choose rest but often we choose to do yet another thing. Rest, choose to rest.

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**