The familiarity of Christmas?
The familiarity of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus can lull us into a false sense of security. It’s as if we say to ourselves, ‘yup, I know about Christmas and I’ve got that one sorted’. Nothing could be further from the truth in my view. If we truly grasped the enormity of what was going on we would understand why it was the only occasion in the bible when the angelic worship of Heaven broke into the Earthly realm in such a full-on and dramatic way.
In Luke 1 there are three prayers recorded which are declarations of praise and the prophetic. You may be familiar with them but here are some aspects of them that have caught my attention recently.
The angelic worship of Heaven broke into the Earthly realm
Elizabeth, by now six months pregnant with John receives a visit from Mary. Her unborn child starts a praise party in her womb and she responds by saying “great favour is upon you, for you have believed every word spoken to you from the Lord”. (Luke 1:45 TPT) That’s an amazing statement. Wouldn’t we love to have that said of us?
It shows me that God’s favour, His blessing, help and so on comes to us as we believe every word that He says. Every word. I am not an expert but I think that the true meaning of every is intended to be ‘every, all, each one, all of them, none missed out’, do you get the picture?
When Gabriel said to Mary, you are highly favoured by God so you will become pregnant before you’re properly married, face the risk of lifelong stigma and nobody will be likely to believe that you are the mother of the Messiah, her response was OK, whatever God does is fine by me. That seems to show someone who believes every word that God speaks.
So here’s a question for us, do we believe every word that God has spoken? Is our trust in Him so secure that belief in everything that we have heard from Him is solid and immovable? I’ll leave that with you for a moment.
Mary herself responded by saying “for he set his tender gaze upon me, his lowly servant girl”. (Luke 1:48 TPT) I’m so struck by her humility. Her parents must have been very special because they had brought up a young lady who recognised that she was a servant to God and yet was still prepared to accept a huge responsibility from Him.
Just imagine if Mary had said ‘no!’
Where would that have taken us with nativity plays?
Just imagine if Mary had said ‘no!’ Where would that have taken us with nativity plays? I have no idea. Thankfully though, her humility was so pure that her level of trust allowed her to take on something that she must have had questions about.
Our Father has the same great desires for each of us. You won’t all become pregnant with a real child, though some will of course. However, we are all ‘pregnant’ with a dream from God. We all ‘carry’ something that has been entrusted to us by our Heavenly Father, which He intends to come to full term.
Do you know what it is for you or do you have difficulty believing that it is even true? It seems to me that the key is to go back to the word ‘every’. If we can encounter God in His word and come away believing more of it than we did before, it seems to me that we are on the right path.
(More next week.)