December 24 Advent

Well, it’s Christmas eve! Tonight’s the night most of us will attend a church service, participate in family gatherings, and for many, thrash through heaps of wrapping paper to open gifts! Personally, we wait till Christmas day for gifts...why the hurry!? Somehow I think this would make the real Christmas day so much more anti-climactic for me, and why would I want to do that? Our church has five services this year! Two last night, and three today! Crazy eh? It’s called “unfrozen” (with a logo that looks very much like the Disney movie “frozen”). So I am very curious what the message is going  to be about!

In any case, today we are going through our last little piece of scripture! Don't worry, I’ll still have something for you tomorrow! 




¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2:19-23)

...Yup! That’s it! Pretty anti-climactic for Christmas eve, eh? There are still a few really interesting points to pull out of the story today. For one thing, we see twice in this short passage that Joseph received prophetic dreams and immediately acted on his faith by obeying them.  Another really nifty point to bring out, is how God knew all the prophetic things in the whole story, that seemed impossible to man, yet totally were possible with God. Matthew explains how the prophesies are all true about where the Christ is going to be from! Bethlehem, Egypt and Nazareth! The truth is, as we read the story, its not like Mary and Joseph CHOSE to move to any of these places out of a desire to fulfill prophecies spoken over their son, but instead, they simply worshiped god and obeyed his leading, in how to keep their son safe. As a tesult, ALL the prophecies were fulfilled. This continues throughout Christ's life, right up to his death. Things like "a sword shall pierce his side" or "not a bone will be broken" or "he was pierced for our transgressions", etc... (i'm not 100% confident on that last one, but you get the idea. Old testament prophecies about Jesus came true because they were legit! Not because someone MADE them happen!)

So often, we pray for something, and don't have the faith to trust God to answer. We so-very-often, try to fulfill our own prophesies, and answer our own prayers! Like... For example, if you are praying for God to provide, and instead of praying and doing your duties, you decide to drop out of ministries, stop attending church and get three part time jobs to try and answer your own prayers... you were likely praying more to your own ego than to God... because your end result is by your own effort and has left you farther from God than before.

This is just one example, but we do this all the time; where we have somehow gotten it in our heads that God only answers prayers by way of the right-now-popular phrase; “God helps those who help themselves”... Well,  I am sorry, but this ISNT scriptural!! God helps those who love him, who have faith, and who love and serve his children whole heartedly! THAT is scriptural! And God also sometimes answers with a “no”, which ought to be respected too. If we are going to fight his “no”s, then we are up for a pretty defeating battle... The truth is, its not up to us to answer prayers. Thats God’s job.

I had a professor at SBC who liked to say “let God deal with his own reputation”. It’s not our job to fulfill God’s prophecies. Its our job to be obedient to his callings on our lives, to love him, love his children, and to worship Him! That’s it! If we step beyond that, we are not following God’s plans. This last portion of the Christmas story, in light of the rest of Matthew’s version of the story, is such a beautiful affirmation of this principle. Matthew discusses several very impossible prophecies that had been spoken over Christ’s birth, and they all came true! Not because people made it happen, but because God made it happen. We need to allow this moral to affect our prayer lives.

If God can birth a savior from a virgin woman, than he ought to be given the dignity of being in control of your problems too. Remember, he’s done some pretty amazing stuff! Healed the sick and raised the dead, made a way for gentiles to -not only be saved, but- have an intimate personal relationship with him, he parted the red sea, won impossible battles, delivered his people, and even raised himself from the dead... He can handle what you are going through.

And if God has made you a promise, whether you heard it directly from him, or through scripture, or through a prophetic word from a friend...remember that It’s not your job to uphold God’s reputation. That’s HIS job. He does a fine job of showing us his capabilities through the Christmas story in Matthew, and so lets take some time to dwell on that this Christmas eve. 

God came to earth, to deliver his people, to make a way for ALL people to come to know him. This was to fulfill a promise he made way back in genesis, after the fall of mankind where He says “he will crush your head and you will strike his heel” (genesis 3:15). This is believed to be a direct reference to Satan’s influence in the crucifixion of Christ (striking his heel), and Christ rising from the dead (crushing Satan’s head). THOUSANDS and thousands of years before this happened... God made a promise that he kept. Hebrews 11 is also an excellent example of how we ought to have faith in God’s prophetic words. This passage goes through many old testament stories and how the patriarchs were made promises which they had faith in, despite not even seeing the promises fulfilled... Of the men in the stories told, Hebrews says “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised” (Hebrews 11:39)

And so, we are told over, and over again to have faith, trust in God, and he will do what he has promised. It really is that simple. Anything more complicated on this matter, is not of the Holy Spirit.  And so we ought to pray. 

I want to round off this thought with a passage from James.

¹³ Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
¹⁷ Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸ Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (James 5:13-18)

This may have seemed like a not-so-christmas themed devotional for christmas eve, but let me remind you that today is not christmas day. That is tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day we celebrate Christ's birth. Today we are still remeniscing the waiting... And as we wait, we ought to have faith... We ought to pray WITH faith, because tomorrow we celebrate the birth of our savior.

Let us pray...

Jesus, you came to earth in such an impossible way. You touched our lives, each and every one of us! You ALLOWED us to be touched by you! Even though we are so filthy, you cleansed us, just as you promised. God, you crushed Satan’s head just like you promised. God, you came to earth through a virgin, just as you promised. You made your way from Bethlehem, to Egypt, to Nazareth, just like you promised, and you mourned for the thousands and thousands of babies who were murdered by Herod... just like you promised... Lord, you are true to your words. Those you said you would bless in the bible, you blessed! And those whom you promised to humble, were humbled... Lord you do the same today, and we are sorry for our lack of faith.
Jesus, you are our one true king, and we celebrate you today. Please fill our hearts with Joy over your birth and the fulfilled promises that it represents! Lead our hearts into a place of celebration as we worship today! And God, mature our spirits in faith. May we learn from what we have read this month, and may our faith grow ever stronger, to be like those who believed your coming when they saw it. You are true to your words, and we love you.
In Jesus name,
Amen.