82 degrees the afternoon of Christmas Eve afternoon

It was 82 degrees in the afternoon on Dec. 24 — and that’s far from the only reason it didn’t seem like Christmas Eve. 

I’m struggling to be grateful & joyful. It’s a reminder to me that spiritual warfare is real. Nothing else can account for how I can know on every level that I am blessed — and still I daily battle negativity & despair.

Even on Christmas Eve. 

I’m grateful that the truth of God’s great gift of love doesn’t rely on my feeling it. And I’m grateful for God’s promise that He is with me always, even when I’m not feeling it. 

Even so, I pray to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit & to let His love & joy flow through me. And even so, not my will but Yours be done, I pray, gracious Lord.