Christmas is indeed the most wonderful time of the year! But, the day after Christmas… not so much. Admittedly, all the excitement that went into putting up the Christmas lights is now nonexistent. The time has finally come to take them down.
But certainly, don’t let December 26th be the day you put all of the excitement of Christmas away until next year. Instead, ponder the incarnation of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. It means He has come to illuminate our lives today and forevermore.
The Bible is amazing. It’s all one story that points to the New Covenant ushered in by Jesus Christ. From its first pages (with the brokenness and mess of human sin) God had His eyes on His ultimate promise to His people — Jesus. We can look throughout the Bible and see how God fulfilled His promises and covenants through Jesus. Undeniably, Jesus is a Promise Keeper!
Have you ever prayed to God and seemingly nothing happened? How about praying 10 times? 100 times? Maybe you felt like you didn’t even deserve the gift you asked for? I recently read the first chapter of Luke and empathized with Zechariah. God spoke to me in a new way — to not lose heart when I pray. I had three takeaways I wanted to share with you.
Remember These Things:
1. Be faith-filled and pray continually.
Think about how long Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed for a child. Being advanced in years and well beyond the age of having children (Luke 1:18), they must have prayed thousands of times to have a child. They continued to have faith and pray even though their prayers seemed unanswered (Luke 1:6).
2. Gifts from God are good.
When God answered their prayer for a child, Zechariah didn’t believe it. I can certainly empathize with that feeling! There are times I feel like I don’t deserve a blessing from God. In fact, it leads me to doubt the prayer will be answered. God shook Zechariah a bit by removing his voice until his son was born. It was as if God needed to get his attention (in a drastic way) for him to understand the depth of the gift he was about to receive. Being mute drove Zechariah to an even closer relationship with God than he had before (Luke 1:67–79). Take heart, even when things seem like they are “bad”, God is working it for good.
3. God loves us and will answer us.
He hears us and answers according to His will for our lives (Luke 1:13). Certainly, our prayers aren’t always answered the way we want. That’s because our Father knows what’s best for us. I know there have been times I’ve specifically prayed for something and it didn’t happen the way I wanted. But God knew what was best.
When we faithfully pray, we are heard and loved by Him. He will answer us according to His will for our lives. With this in mind, don’t lose heart while you’re waiting. Sometimes, just like for Zechariah, God needs to grab our attention during the process. Take heart.
“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” — James 5:16b-18
Utah is experiencing a severe drought. In fact, 88% of our state is under extreme drought conditions. Due to this, back in June, Governor Cox said, “Because there is power in prayer, we are asking all of you and your congregations to join us in a weekend of prayer this coming weekend, June 4-6.” (On a side note, when I mentioned the governor’s prayer request to pastors in other states, they found it remarkable.)
“Do not be afraid of them; the LORD your God himself will fight for you.” — Deuteronomy 3:22
Most of us go through each day without giving a second thought to the reality of the spiritual dimension around us. However, the Bible frequently gives us glimpses of this unseen realm. Certainly, that should cause us to take notice.
“Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son.” Hebrews 3:5-6
In Exodus, we read that it took some time for Moses to accept the fact that God had huge plans for his life. You might wonder why that was?
The Book of Acts (Chapter 12), shows us how faithful and faithless people respond to the storms and trials of life. If you remember in Acts, the early church in Jerusalem was growing like a weed. About that same time, King Herod decided to persecute the church. First, he murdered James and then he arrested Peter. He most likely planned to kill Peter, too. I love Acts 12:5, “So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.”
