God of Possibilities

This year I decided I wanted to read about the Christmas story.  No not the one that is a made up tale that we all know “It was the night before Christmas….”  I imagine that when you read that you were able to finish it off yourself.  But that is not the story I wanted to read.  I wanted to look into history and as my friend Paul pointed out, read about His story.  So I grabbed my bible and started in Luke chapter 1. 

 

I read it with the expectation to see and find nuggets of truth and value.  I was not disappointed. Just a few verses into the chapter I met Zachariah. He was a Priest you see who honored God. God found Him to be a man that sought after Him and he was righteous in God’s eyes.  Both Zachariah and Elizabeth were praying for a child. They were married for many many years and no baby came from their union. By the time I met him, he was an old man. I imagine that he had ceased praying. The people had labeled Elizabeth as Barren.  They were childless and that was life as they knew it.  Things were about to change. 

 

As Zachariah worked in the temple, he was visited by an angel that would change his life forever and ours.  You see, Gabriel came to give him news that was unbelievable. It was impossible to say the least, but we know that with God all things are possible. J

Gabriel told him that his wife Elizabeth would be pregnant with child and bring forth a son in God’s timing. This child was to be the forerunner for the Messiah, the Savior of the nation and the world.  He would call his name John.  WOW!  Zachariah was floored. He questioned the possibility of this being true. He looked at himself and considered it beyond possible – even for God.  He forgot that his very ancestors, Abraham and Sarah were icons of God making the impossible possible.  He forgot that the very nation of Israel was from that miracle. God turned barrenness into fruitfulness, disregarding medical diagnosis, defying reason and bringing about a promise that He made to Abraham years and years ago.

 Zachariah had ceased perhaps ceased praying for a child with Elizabeth and he just did not believe anymore.  He had given up on this prayer ever being answered.  Gabriel muted Zachariah and so often I wish God would do that to me.  He did it because Zachariah did not believe. His mouth would have been a dangerous weapon, spewing doubt and fear.  So it was an act of mercy on Gabriel’s part in my eyes. 

Are you with me on this?  I see myself in this story.  Are you?  Have you gotten to the stage where you have given up on that prayer request(s)?  Don’t.  Don’t trade faith for unbelief.  Don’t trade hope for resigned despair. So here is the question, “is there anything too hard for God?” And you say…? All things are possible with God.

 

Anticipating God's Good and Perfect Gifts

Today on the Embrace Prayer Line the devotion was about anticipation.  It’s Christmas and for most of the world we celebrate the time by giving gifts to each other. The speaker described how as a child, she and her sister anticipated opening the gifts that were under the Christmas tree.  She described what most of us might remember ourselves – the waiting with held in breath, the receiving and the tearing into the package because you can’t wait to see. Sometimes it would be something that you wanted and the excitement continues. Other times you would be disappointed because that is not what you desired and it would be like a pin stuck in an inflated balloon.

 

What are you anticipating?  What are expecting to happen this Christmas?  Or maybe you are living in the state of disappointment because what you expected to happen didn’t occur.  Maybe for you, you anticipate not hope but more doom and gloom. Maybe your expectation is that nothing good will happen now or in the next year.  Maybe you have found that for you, the only thing that you think comes is misery and pain.

 

May I tell you something?  I know of someone whose gifts are always good and perfect.  I know of someone who gives you just what you need.  You guessed right if you said God.  He is the giver of all good things. The bible says in the book of James 1:17 that “¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” 

 

If we put our hope in God, we will never be disappointed. We can anticipate His good and perfect gifts and know that He will deliver.  I urge you however, not to say what He didn’t and then make Him out to be a liar.  Sometimes we put a time line on when He should deliver.  God has told me many times that He is not a Genie.  It is not in our timing but in His perfect time that what He says will be accomplished.  His words are true.  So go ahead and hope again; go ahead and anticipate His goodness, His perfect peace, His strengthening Joy, His perfect will and definitely His good and perfect gifts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Life is Worth Living

There is a song that came to mind this morning.  It talks about a relationship that is broken between a man and a woman. In it the woman says “I can’t live, if living is without you.  I can’t live, I can’t live anymore.”  The lyrics caused me to think about all those people that are not having a Merry Christmas.  I thought about how there are so many that are saddened by the season, about how many actually feel alone, about how some are depressed, about how for others there is a sense of hopelessness and despair.  I thought of the many that are cloaked in darkness, lied to by the enemy of God and man and fed thoughts of death. I can’t live anymore. 

 

I thought about you.

 

Just when I would have despaired myself, God replaced one song for another.  This song speaks of a truth that made me weep with joy.  This song was about hope. This song was about life.  This songs says that “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all my fears are gone.  Because I know who holds the future. My life is worth living, just because He lives.”

 

You may not be in the best place right now. Life is not easy nor is it smooth, but be encouraged today. Why? The One who knows about your tomorrow is holding your hand.  Your circumstances may not magically change but trust me God is not leaving you alone.  He wants to bring you His message of hope, not just for today, but for the future.  You are worth it to Him.  Your life is worth living.  Live in His Light my friend for Lo, He is with you.  Live and move in Him.

 

Acts 17:24 -29The Message (MSG)

^24-29 “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?

"I see you" says God

Many years ago, I used to play with my son who was then a toddler a game of "I see you'.  I would cover my eyes and then remove them to look at him and say "I see you!"  For whatever reasons he would laugh and squeal with delight whenever I said that.  I play the same game with my now two year old grand-niece, and she echoes it back to me, I see you!  Hours of fun, with little effort.  As I wrote the title for the post this was the memory that came to mind. God is not playing a game as I was, but I also believe that He says to us the very same thing, I see you.


I have read in the bible about a woman by the name of Hagar.  She was the slave of Abram's wife, Sarai.  Over two thousand years ago she found herself in quite the predicament.  She was pregnant for her mistress' husband, and was running away from said mistress who was treating her badly.  Jealousy and contempt had invaded the camp, because someone decided to help God along with His promise.  For Hagar, it was a time of great distress and sorrow.


It was in this state that the Lord found her.  He encouraged her with his truth and grace.  He saw her.  This was important to Hagar and in Genesis 16:3 "...She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me."  Hagar encountered the God who sees and was forever changed.


Today I want to once again remind someone that God sees you.  You could be the one sitting on the outside of everyone else, alone and in despair.  You could be ready to throw in the towel, hopeless and ready to exit the life you have right now.  God sees you.  God sees you right where you are, and He is saying to you "don't give up.  I am with you.  I see you."  He sees your heart.  He sees your sorrow.  He sees your pain.  He sees your desires.  He sees your secrets.  He sees all of you and still, he loves you. Right now, I believe that God has extended to you His hand and is saying once again, "I see you."