It is Christmas Day and on this day long ago our savior, Jesus Christ was born in the city of David and His arrival was announced by an angel to shepherds tending their flocks. He was called our savior and brought with Him peace between God and man, but for man’s part, peace between themselves continued to be lost within their hearts.
When I was a boy it wasn’t uncommon to see people, and families taking a stroll in the evening. When people would have a problem in their life they wouldn’t go to a psychiatrist, they would take a quiet walk to meditate, think, reason, and if they were Men or women of faith they would discuss these things with God, and Jesus Christ. Somehow over the years we have fallen out of this habit, and come to believe that all our problems are to be addressed by yet more action, not less, and that quiet times of solitude are a waste of time. I invite each of us to ask ourselves a simple question today; “How much time do I spend alone with God, and Jesus, or in meditation versus going about my active life in the world, or even faith?”
In our service to the Lord do we ever find ourselves reaching the physical limit of our strength? Do we find ourselves exhausted and our desire to continue on waning? Well, this is not uncommon because there is a natural limit to what our earthly body, including our minds, can sustain before they must rest. When we approach this limit it is no surprise to God, and although He tells us to eat, drink, and rest, our minds often push us on towards our breaking point. Feeling guilty when we rest, or thinking that we have somehow been given superhuman ability by God, pushes us on and we ignore Him. Listen to the angels He sends, and hear Him in our dreams and visions. You are not unlike Elijah, and need to have your strength replenished… the journey is not over yet.
In this world that is parched by sin we once longed to quench our thirst with a refreshing drink of living water. We thirsted for God and Jesus Christ in this wilderness of human suffering that included both our body that had been made like leather in the heat, and our soul that had become hardened like a sponge in a dry land. However, now we have found the well, and know where our help comes from, our help comes from the Lord. We sought, and now walk, refreshed by His grace. From the well of Christ we draw our cool drink, and fill our skins with life… living water. Yet having found Him, do we horde Him, or do we mercifully offer the water of life we have found to others who still thirst?
There are times when we will feel alone in our faith, and even among our brothers and sister in Christ we will feel this way. In these times we will be separated, and walk alone with God, or Jesus Christ. As we read the Bible stories regarding the great men of God we find that at some point in each of their lives of faith they were separated, and sent into isolation. But, in our time in the desert, on the mountain, in prisons, or banished to Patmos, we are never truly alone. We are with God, and in these seemingly lonely places He has our undivided attention. Do we know what it is like to be alone with God? Even in a crowd of people have we felt isolated from the world, and in such times didn’t He come to us? Hasn’t Jesus met us on the road to Emmaus and walked us through the scripture? Was His presence enough for us?
When we believe in Jesus Christ as our savior, the Son of God, and are then baptized, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift plays an important role in our spiritual lives by giving us such things as scriptural understanding, remembrance, prayer when we don’t have the words, and the various other gifts of the Spirit when we need them to obey and do the will of God. In the upper room, following the ascension of Jesus, the disciples received the Spirit, but they were not the first nor the last that the gospel of Jesus tells us of receiving him. We read first of Elisabeth the mother of John the Baptist, and John in her womb, being filled with the Spirit.
We read in scripture that we are to strive for peace with everyone so that we can see the Lord, and we think that maybe with our own effort we can accomplish this, but along with that it is written that we should also strive for holiness, and we have no idea how we can possibly become holy. Perhaps this is because we see who we are, and the decrepit nature of our starting point. When we compare this with the ultimate goal of achieving holiness, we wonder how it is possible to do that. So how do we become holy? Is holiness something that man can accomplish, or is it unobtainable for us?
As Christians we live to love. We love our God with all our heart, sole, mind, and strength; we love His Son Jesus, and we love our neighbors as ourselves, but in all of our opportunities to love we are to do so without requiring that we be loved first in exchange for giving our love. A Christian’s love is meant to be unconditional like the love that God modeled for us when He sent His Son to redeem us. We are to love with the humble obedient love that Jesus demonstrated during his life, death, and resurrection. If we can love others in this way then we will be judged as good, and our love will endure forevermore. Do we live our lives so that above all else we will find peace, joy, and comfort in eternal life, or do we seek to love abundantly, and to experience God’s divine love forevermore… even if it might cost us our lives?
I read a discussion of prayer in which the author was talking about powerful prayers, and he proposed that for a person to be able to pray powerfully that it took work, and much practice to perfect. He went on to say that the more a person prayed the better they became at it. Well it is good to pray without ceasing, or for our prayers to at least be habitual, but the unrehearsed prayer of a child carries as much weight and power in it as the most ornate prayer of a robed pastor, the humble prayer if a priest, or even the expectant prayers of a prophet. The power of prayer rests in our righteousness, sincerity, and relationship with the Lord as we open our hearts to Him, and is not in our oration, diction, nor the perfection of our deliverance.
The Lord will certainly guide our steps when we walk the path of the righteous man by believing in Him, loving Him, obeying Him, and having not only faith in Him, but trusting in Him to act. Do we believe this to be true, and even though we often wait upon Him, do we trust enough to lean on Him completely without fear of falling?
When we pray where do we begin? Do we begin with those things that are near to us, or those which are near to God? When Jesus taught His disciples to pray He started by calling on God as He identified Him as our Father, then who He is, Hallowed (or Holy), and thirdly where He lives, in heaven. Then, after reaching out to God, He instructs us to pray for the world by asking that God’s kingdom and will come to us. Only then does Jesus teach us to mention our own needs. Is this how we pray when we enter into our personal time of prayer? Do we begin with those greater things of God before we ask for the lesser things that are about us?
We say that there is but one God, a God above all, and that there is no other, but do we live as though that is true? The Israelites said these same words and yet formed golden calves and worshiped false gods. Are we any different when we stand before gleaming gold medallions, polished marble statues, and treasures in our homes saying look what my labor and wealth has brought me? Do we marvel and say, “see what my hands have made!”? In such moments who do we worship, who is our god, and as we worship ourselves as the god of our success can we be saved from ourselves?
In preparing for his final days, Paul wrote to Timothy and gave him instructions and warnings regarding the preaching and teaching of the gospel. Amongst these warnings was one that we find coming to fruition today; he warned him about not yielding to the temptation to water down the message to suit the whims and passions of the people. He warned that many would wander into myths. As we seek out our own salvation do we look for the narrow gate of true faith, or the earthly gate of myth that is thrown wide? Fewer will enter by the narrow gate and find eternal life, while a horde will rush the convenient earthly gate that means nothing but death. Are we being deceived?
In the darkest seasons of our lives when we find ourselves wandering aimless with outstretched hands what is it that we are searching for? What are we hoping to find? Are we desperate to find something, anything, firm to hold onto, or are we following the voice and scent of God to His house where we can worship and bless Him? It is easy, and natural for us to worship our Lord when light surrounds us, and we are receiving the gifts He provides, but when night falls on us do we continue to call His name, and seek Him, or do we enter the first door that opens for us and call its owner our lord? When frightened, hungry, thirsty, lost in the darkness, and there is no relief in sight, do we continue to praise God, and call out the name of Jesus?