Psalms 24:7 says, Lift up your heads, o ye gates! And be lifted up, you the King of Glory shall come in. I t ’ s Christ mastime, for many of us, it’s a season of rememb ering that Jesus is the Son of God given to us. Begin ning as a baby, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, we put our manger scenes up in our houses. We sing the song telling of His birth.

And we are just more aware on a daily basis of the plan of salvation being manifested in the life of Jesus. We are letting the King of Glory enter our thoughts and our lives at this holiday season and it’s a good thing.

Easter, of course, is another time when we give our attention to what Jesus did for us on the cross and in His resurrection.

Both seasons are wonderful and hold a special place in the heart of every Christian. But, the thought I want to get across now is: What if every day of the year was more like these two holidays? What if every morning we opened up our new day with the intentional focus on our King, rather than having our first thoughts consumed with our to-do list or worry list.

Our free will allows us the privilege to decide what we will let in our thoughts and what will be our focus. We get to choose what we allow our attention to rest on.

While decorations and holiday emphasis may remind us of what God has done for us, we can have a more deliberate decision to keep in mind the glory of our King that will carry us through the whole year. This changes our life, when we continually focus on what Jesus has done for us, it affects every area of us – spirit, soul and body.

Isaiah 26:3 says, You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you.

Romans 8:6 says, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Why has it been so hard to keep our minds on God? It is because our enemy knows the power of a focused mind and life. Those who let the King of Glory enter their every day life will be convinced of the ability of God at work on their behalf.

We will be strong and do exploits. Daniel 11:32 says, but the people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.

Of course the enemy, the Devil, will do everything he can to distract us or discourage us from all that God wants to do in and through us. One of Satan’s favorite ways of short-circuiting the will of God in a person’s life is to redirect their thoughts away from God and His glory. The Holy Spirit can be depended on to illuminate any darkness that tries to creep into our life and then we are able to replace the untruth with God’s truth.

So, let’s lift up and open the doors so that the King of Glory may come in and fill our lives with His presence, His power and His promises. Let’s have a year-round experience of all the fullness of God through Jesus Christ, His Son.

Let’s use this holiday season to train ourselves to say a remembrance of the glory of God shared with us, because He so loved the world.