Savor Your Best Gift Ever in 2020!

The tree is down, all the Christmas decorations packed away in bright red and green totes in our basement, and it feels like the holiday season blew in and out way too fast.

And I think I know why.

Two weekends of the already busy holiday season were spent at arts & craft fairs selling my books and other Christian-based items.

Oh, I’m thankful we had those opportunities, but I just didn’t take as much time as I usually do during the holidays savoring the season.

When you savor something, you enjoy it to the fullest.

And I definitely didn’t do that.

I was distracted by this and that, and wish I would have done things differently.

But the thing is, I can’t change the past.

Next Christmas, I plan to be more intentional about slowing down and savoring the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of Christmas and just breathing it all in.

And I won’t have to wait very long because Christmas 2020 will be here before I know it!

In my latest post, "The Best Gift Ever Is Eternal!", I zoomed in on each word of the statement Jesus—Best Gift Ever! in order to focus on just how wonderful Jesus, our Best Gift Ever, really is.

In this post, I want to share ways we can be intentional about savoring Jesus in 2020.

I received Jesus—my Best Gift Ever—after hearing the best news ever right before my tenth birthday in 1974.

But I didn’t even begin to unwrap, enjoy, and share Him with others until 1997.

Can you imagine what it would be like to receive the one Gift that held the key to your true fulfillment—your ultimate happiness—and never even know what you have?

Tragic.

For twenty-three years, all I basically understood was that Jesus died for my sins and came to live in my heart to keep me out of Hell.

But even then, I didn’t have full assurance that I would end up in Heaven.

Because I tied my salvation to my behavior (which, by the way, was far less than stellar).

Because my Best Gift Ever remained hidden for over two decades, I looked to everything else in this world—marriage, children, personal and career accomplishments, the latest diets, makeup, and fashions, accolades from others, and so on to experience true fulfillment and happiness.

And guess what? None of the above delivered.

All those wasted years of not unwrapping, savoring, and sharing my Best Gift Ever is a large part of what fuels my passion for sharing with other Christians about the sweet intimacy they can enjoy with Christ through understanding their already-and-forever flawless identity in Him.

I’m so thankful that God doesn’t waste anything!

Even the lost years.

Christian, are you ready to unwrap and savor your Best Gift Ever in 2020?

Are you ready to see what’s inside?

Better yet, do you realize your Best Gift Ever—the Spirit of Christ Jesus—lives inside you 24/7/365, without interruption?

What’s more, you now live inside Him 24/7/365, without interruption.

At the same time that Jesus filled your heart with new life, you were sealed inside His heart—His Holy Spirit—forever (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30).

And He promises never to leave you nor forsake you (John 10:28; Heb. 13:5).

For Him to leave you, He would have to disown Himself (2 Tim. 2:13). 

Not.Going.To.Happen.

Your spirit and His Spirit became one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

Him in you and you in Him (John 14:20).

It’s a done deal.

The revelation of “me in Christ” changed everything for me.

Let me explain.

I (kind of) understood that Jesus (His Spirit) lived in my heart.

And I viewed Him as being the only “good thing” in me.

The rest needed a lot of work! (Exhausting.)

But then I began to understand that who I am eternally is a spirit who has a soul and lives inside a body.

And my body and soul are where I do my Monday-through-Sunday living (1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 4:12).

When I believed into Jesus, my spirit (who I am eternally) was totally immersed into His Spirit.

When that happened, a flawless fusion took place.

And who I am in Christ right now is who I will forever be in Him.

In other words, I cannot mess this up!

That’s when I really began to experience rest.

Real rest in Christ Jesus.

Have you ever received a multi-purpose gift?

A gift that has so many features to it, you could spend the rest of your life finding out all that it can do and then still only accessing and enjoying a fraction of its benefits?

The gift of Christ’s life in you and you in Him is the most multi-faceted Gift you will ever receive!

One of my favorite, power-packed Scriptures about what Christians have as a result of being in Christ is First Corinthians 1:30:

“By His [Father God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”

Let’s unwrap what we have in Christ Jesus through this single verse.

Christ Jesus is my wisdom: As I look to His Spirit within me and His Word, I depend on Him to make His wisdom and guidance—His direction for my life—known to me (Ps. 147:5; Rom. 11:33; 16:27). He does this by uploading His wisdom and direction into my mind and confirming them by His Spirit.

Christ Jesus is my righteousness: I can never be more righteous than I am right now. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 1:16-17; 2 Cor. 5:21). I don’t have to work at being right with God because I am already as righteous as I’ll ever be through faith in His Son. When I believe and realize that Jesus is my righteousness, righteousness is consistently expressed through my daily living.

Christ Jesus is my sanctification: Sanctification means “made holy.” I (my eternal spirit) have already been made holy through being immersed into Christ’s Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16-17). And that holiness is consistently expressed through my daily living as I acknowledge and meditate on the truth that I am already sanctified (made holy) in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Heb. 10:10, 14).

Christ Jesus is my redemption: Imagine that you could access Jesus’ redemption online (we do almost everything else online!). So you head on over to JesusIsMyRedemption.com. There is only one item in the online store—ETERNAL LIFE. And its price: “You can’t afford this, no matter how much money you have or how good you are.” There is also a message on the same screen that says: “If you want to receive ETERNAL LIFE, you will have to use the redemption code: BLOODOFJESUS.” So you put your ETERNAL LIFE in the cart, type in the code, and press APPLY CODE. You get an instant confirmation that says, “Congratulations! ETERNAL LIFE has been downloaded into your heart drive (your spirit) with a LIFETIME GUARANTEE. You will never have shop for ETERNAL LIFE again. The blood of Jesus paid it all. Oh, and that’s not all! With your redemption, you get these added bonuses: Forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7), righteousness (Romans 5:17), freedom from the law’s curse (Galatians 3:13), adoption into God’s family (Galatians 4:5), deliverance from sin’s bondage (Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:14-18), peace with God (Colossians 1:18-20), and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Dear friend, if you are a believer in Christ Jesus, then He is already and forever your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification, and redemption.

He is everything you need for life and godliness! (2 Pet. 1:3 NASB).

This year, be intentional about focusing on the truth about who you already and forever are in Christ.

You’ve heard and believed the best news ever about the Best Gift Ever.

You’ve received the Best Gift Ever, so now, savor Him all day, every day!

And as you savor your Best Gift Ever in 2020, you won’t be able to help but share Him!

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If you enjoyed this post, I invite you to check out all of my books and my video series based on my first devotional.