As Ebenezer Scrooge stood before the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, the weight of the future pressed on him. He lacked peace. As the New Year approaches, perhaps the future presses on you too. The uncertain finances, the shaky relationship, the slipping health. Where can you find peace amid the unknown?

Charles Dickens’ enduring classic, A Christmas Carol, has something to say about both the future and peace. So does Isaiah 9:6. This scripture foretells the coming of Jesus, and it calls Him the Prince of Peace.

As we wind down the Christmas season (and this blog series) and look toward the coming New Year, let’s draw one more comparison between Christ and A Christmas Carol.

Jesus and the Ghost point to the future to bring about eventual peace.

For Ebenezer, this meant a look at an empty legacy. A future filled with death — for both him and Tiny Tim). For the Christian, Jesus offers us the future of eternal life and the rest of our earthly lives with Him too.

Matthew 28:20 promises us that Jesus will be with us always. He points to our futures and says, “Hey, I’ll be there.” Peace can be found there, in companionship with Christ.

Jesus and the Ghost unsettle us.

Scrooge’s encounter with the future catalyzed a change. It shook him. Made him rethink his finances, his relationships, his purpose in life. Relationship with Jesus asks us to get uncomfortable, to fight our very sin natures in order to follow Him.

In Ephesians 4:22 we learn, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Peace can be found in the discomfort of being made new, because we are drawing closer to Jesus, the source of that peace.

Jesus intercedes for us, as the Ghost interceded for Scrooge.

Scrooge says about the Spirit he encounters, “Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me.” In other words, the Ghost stepped in on Scrooge’s behalf to save him from a bleak future. How much greater an intercessor is Jesus!

Hebrews 7:25 says, “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” And Romans 8:34 says, “Christ Jesus who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”

Peace can be found in knowing Christ prays for us before the Father.

Jesus, the God of Christmas, offers us peace all year. Even as we stare into the unknown, peace is possible. Peace that can invade our Past. Our Present. Our Future. No ghosts required.

If peace for you in 2020 includes finances, check out Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University starting Thursday, January 16 at The Vineyard's Jackson Road location.

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