Christmas Tip #5:
Today, ask Jesus what He wants for His birthday? Quietly wait for His answer - He'll put it in your heart. Perhaps it's a sin habit or something He wants you to do. The first gift I ever gave to Jesus for His birthday was a potty mouth. (Very embarassing to admit!) For more ideas - check out my new Christmas Journal!
Luke 1:25
"The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days He has shown His favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."
As we close our week with Elizabeth and Zechariah, I have more questions today than I have answers. If you have better insight, share it. As detailed as Dr. Luke has been - today he frustrates me. When Zechariah got home, how did he tell Elizabeth? What was her response? Did she believe -or did she doubt? Was she worried about the health of her baby since she was past the age of child-bearing? What about the details of her to-be son's character? What was her response? What went through her mind? (My husband tells me that I should have been a reporter because I always ask lots of questions. He never asks enough!) Lastly, why did Elizabeth stay in seclusion for 5 months? Does anyone have any answers?!!
This I do know - our God is faithful. At the beginning of the story, you would have thought that this family was all but forgotten by God. Yet they continued to honor Him in their everyday decisions. As a result - the end of the story - God blessed them beyond what they ever could have asked or thought of asking for. Perhaps, in their own minds, they had put a "period" at what they thought was the end of their story: a priest and his disgraced wife living in Judea childless for the rest of their lives. YET this wasn't the end of the story. God had not put a period - only a comma!
Let this encourage you today if you are facing trials, hardships or discouragement. Perhaps your hardship is financial, or something with your marriage, or other relationships. Perhaps it's job or career related or perhaps it's a huge disappointment that can never be erased. If you're still breathing, it's just a comma in God's eyes, not a period. Another day is coming: Joel 2:25 says, "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten." Psalm 37:28 says, "For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake His faithful ones." God is faithful to the faithful.
What must you do while waiting for God to continue writing the story as He did for Zechariah and Elizabeth? Psalm 37: 3-7 has an answer for us:
"Trust in the Lord and do good....
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him."
Our sweet couple did good in the Lord's eyes. (By the way, the only way we can know what is good in God's eyes is to be in the Word everyday.) They delighted themselves in Him and committed their ways to Him. And look at what He did for them:
- Repaid them for the shame they had experienced for years!
- Blessed them with a miracle!
- Used them amongst their friends/family to reveal the reality of Himself in their midst!
- Made them displays of HIS splendor!
- Assured them of not only their son's physical health, but of his character as well!
Trust in the Lord and do good my friend ... God's only placed a comma on your life's story!
Love,
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