Christmas Ingredients.

Anyone into Christmas baking yet? There is nothing worse than starting a baking project and missing an ingredient! Ever try to substitute the missing ingredient with something else? Many times, it just does not turn out the way it should.

To fully enjoy Advent and Christmas, you need certain ingredients that shape our lives for the entirety of the year. The church has long considered hope, peace, joy and love to be those ingredients.

Isaiah 40:31 says, “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

2 Corinthians 13:11 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.”

Psalm 16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

And Ephesians 5:1-2 says, “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

These verses are simply a glimpse of all the Bible says about the importance and necessity of hope, peace, joy, and love.

We should not only seek them during Advent and Christmas. Instead, we should be people of hope, peace, joy, and love all year round. The more we receive the gift of Jesus, the more He builds these things into our lives so that we give off a pleasing aroma to the world around us much like the aroma of Christmas baking. And when the right ingredients make up our character, we are pleasing to Jesus.