Peace or Stress at Christmas—Your Choice

Healing Ancestral Wounds

By Gena Barnhill @BarnhillGena

You can eliminate stress at Christmas and experience the joy and peace Jesus came to bring us.

What We See at Christmas Time

The Christmas season can be filled with wonderful memories of happy gatherings, holiday parties, festive decorations, gift-giving, and celebrations. It can also be a stressful time searching for the perfect gifts and preparing for family gatherings. Perhaps family gatherings are no longer as happy as we remembered them. Or they were never joyous. Additionally, the financial cost associated with gift-giving, celebrations, and finding the time to prepare can increase holiday stress. The result is feeling overwhelmed and exhausted and wishing the holiday season would end so we can experience relief.

But, you can still experience peace at this busy time of the year.

Stress at Christmas Time

You may be unsure how to observe this holiday if you grew up in a family that did not celebrate Christmas. Or you may find yourself sad or envious when you see people who appear to be enjoying the holiday and family time together, and your family does not appreciate being together.

TV Christmas movies show families getting together to trim the tree, make cookies, and wrap and exchange presents. If this is your expectation, you may be disappointed your situation does not look like the idyllic TV families. In reality, many families don’t do these activities together.

I remember my mother looking sad and uninterested in Christmas when I was a young child. Several years later she explained her dad died unexpectedly on Christmas Eve, and she was reliving that loss every Christmas Eve until she learned to release her pain to Jesus. He took her stress at Christmas and gave her peace.

Have you released your pain and unmet expectations to Jesus? He came to heal the brokenhearted. Allow Him to comfort you.

Recognizing Family Patterns

If we become more aware of our relatives’ idiosyncrasies and experience heightened conflict during family gatherings, we may recognize negative ancestral influences that need the Lord’s help to break. Most people are unaware these negative patterns must be confessed and renounced for peace to reign.

During the holidays, we may observe several of the following undesirable behaviors and emotions:

  • overconsumption of alcohol
  • overconsumption of food
  • loneliness
  • anxiety
  • sadness over unmet expectations
  • overspending
  • worry over finances
  • conflict in relationships
  • grief

The root of these behaviors and emotions may be one or more of the following negative ancestral influences:

  • abandonment
  • abuse
  • addiction
  • anxiety
  • depression
  • poverty
  • rejection
  • shame
  • victimization

Not all challenging situations have their roots in negative ancestral influences. However, if we recognize a negative pattern in our family line, we can ask the Lord to reveal if this is a negative ancestral influence we need to break. If He indicates yes, we pray to break its power over ourselves and our families.

How to Break the Negative Pattern Causing Stress

  1. Confess the sins of our ancestors, parents, and ourselves that are associated with this negative pattern.
  2. Forgive each person who influenced and hurt us because of these influences.
  3. Ask the Lord to forgive us for yielding to these negative influences and accept His forgiveness. We may yield to these influences by believing lies about ourselves.
  4. Renounce these negative influences and declare that we break their power over our lives, our families, and all future families in Jesus’s holy name.
  5. Receive God’s blessings. We ask Him what He would like to give us in place of the negative influence. 

For example, if we observe a pattern of addiction in our lineage, the Holy Spirit may replace it with freedom and dependency or Him instead of substances. If we renounce anxiety and stress, the Lord may replace it with peace and joy.

When We Forget the True Meaning of Christmas

Most importantly, Christmas is about celebrating the birth of the One who saves us and heals our pain. Too often, we are focused on the media’s portrayal of Christmas, the busyness, and our expectations.

If we are unable to do activities that were once family traditions, such reuniting to celebrate together, because of lack of time or money, we may experience false guilt. False guilt is not from God. It is a tactic of the enemy to keep us busy and distracted from a healthy relationship with the Lord.

I hate to admit I have been caught up in the frenetic activity of Christmas and put unrealistic expectations on myself. Making hand-pressed sugar cookies and jam thumbprints together was a tradition in our family. I felt bad when I did not have the time or energy to make them several years ago.

Did we need those cookies and calories? No. Instead, I needed to take inventory of my self-imposed expectations. One way to do this is to ask the Lord what He wants us to do. He will let us know if we ask and are willing to listen.

So, what can we do to experience the peace and joy Jesus came to give us?

We can eliminate stress at Christmas and experience His PEACE by:

Planning for quiet moments in the Lord’s presence by intentionally setting time in your schedule to sit with the Lord in prayer regularly, even if only for a few minutes.

Embracing the truth you are unconditionally loved by God; therefore, He will never leave you.

Accepting your position as a beloved child in God’s family. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the result is adoption into God’s family.

Caring for those around you who need to experience God’s love by asking the Lord to show you who needs His touch.

Encouraging others with the good news of the Gospel and hope in the Lord because the Lord is our only hope.

You can still experience God’s peace that passes understanding, even amid the surrounding stress at Christmas.

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27 ESV).

I pray you may experience the Lord’s peace in your life this Christmas while we celebrate His birth. Jesus came to heal us and set us free from our burdens and brokenness as He said in Luke 4:18-19. Jesus is our only source of hope and peace. Draw close to Him.

I’d love for you to have an opportunity to chime in. What thoughts do you have regarding experiencing peace during the holiday season? Be sure to leave your thoughts on our Facebook Group Healing Prayer Discussion.

We are all stronger when we learn from each other. Looking forward to your input.

Blessings,
Gena

In case you missed the rest of the Ancestral Influences Series, here is the link to the Archives:

https://simpleeffectiveprayer.com/category/healing-ancestral-wounds/