Daily Devotional For Saturday, December 21, 2024

Our Christmas word for today is BELIEVE. It is through belief in Jesus that Christmas becomes more than just shopping and sentiment. I’d like to look back at the first Christmas, at two people who each heard a message from an angel. One chose not to believe, and the other decided to believe. We learn a lot about belief from the contrast between Zechariah and Mary. Zechariah didn’t believe.

The father of John the Baptist was told by an angel that his wife Elizabeth would have a child in her old age. His first response was to ask for more proof, and so the angel Gabriel said this in Luke 1:20, “But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time” (NLT). Zechariah was a priest in God’s temple, one who should have been a prime example of trust in God. Now, he must endure months of it being obvious to all that God has stopped his speech. It is almost certain that he lost his ability to serve as a priest in the temple because of this handicap.

Mary did believe. When Mary heard that she would give birth to Jesus as a virgin, she chose to  believe. Mary and Zechariah were both confused by the message they received, yet Mary decided to trust God. Her beautiful expression of this trust in God is expressed in Luke 1:38, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true” (NLT). She soon went to see her aunt Elizabeth, the same one who was Zechariah’s wife, and an amazing moment happened in Luke 1:39-45:

“A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town (40) where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. (41) At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. (42) Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. (43) Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? (44) When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. (45) You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said” (NLT).

Get the picture of what is happening in this household. Elizabeth is still pregnant with John, so Zechariah is still unable to speak. As she sees Mary, Elizabeth perceives that she has chosen to believe what the angel told her and says, “You believed that the Lord would do what he said.” Under the same roof is Zechariah, who had chosen not to believe God would do what He said.

Right after she hears this from Elizabeth, Mary sings a song of praise: The Magnificat. It’s one of the greatest expressions of praise in all of the Bible. Zechariah was not able to sing, because he had chosen to not believe. Think of the questions that must have been going through his mind. Would he ever be able to speak again, to believe and praise God again?

The story of Zechariah is not over. When John is born and Zechariah’s voice is restored, one of the first things he does is sing his own song of praise. His struggles to believe led him to a place of faith. Just because you’ve struggled to believe doesn’t mean that you’ll never believe. In fact, it’s most often through struggles that we come to the place of trusting God. It’s never too late to believe and to experience the blessings of belief. 

Do you need to believe? Maybe you’ve celebrated Christmas year after year, but never taken the step to believe that Jesus died to give you forgiveness and was resurrected to give you eternal life. I realize that an angel has likely not appeared to you to give you a message to believe. The truth is, God has given us something even greater than the few sentences they heard. All that is in the Bible is his message to lead us to believe. John says at the end of all that he wrote about Jesus this in John 20:31, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name (NIV).

Let’s believe right now. There are some life lessons here for us:

1. The humble are exalted and the proud or those with hubris are brought low. New Testament scholar Robert Stein writes this:“Clearly Luke saw in Jesus’ coming a great reversal of the world’s value system. Indeed with Jesus’ coming the humble poor and outcasts become first, i.e., they are receiving salvation, whereas the proud and arrogant become last, i.e., they are rejecting salvation and receiving divine judgment” (Source: Robert Stein, The New American Commentary, “Luke,” Vol. 24, p. 94).
2. God keeps His divine prophecies and Word to His people. God cannot and does not lie, ever. Yet, according to Jesus, the devil is a “liar, and the father of lies” (John 8:44). 
3. The child born by Mary was clearly greater than the child born by Elizabeth. Thus Jesus received homage from John the Baptist in Luke 1:41, 44 and from Elizabeth’s prophetic utterance (Luke 1:42) that Mary was the most blessed among women. Since Mary’s blessedness came from the child she bore (Luke 1:43), her child must be greater than all other children born of women. The Christological emphasis takes on an even nobler significance when Elizabeth called Mary the “mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43). Even though unborn, Mary’s son was Elizabeth’s Lord” (Source: Robert Stein, The New American Commentary, “Luke,” Vol. 24, p. 95).

Thus Mary believed and was blessed and she ended up blessing the whole world and future generations. Even before Jesus was born, Elizabeth believed Jesus was her Lord and the role her son would play in being her Lord’s forerunner. 

Questions To Consider

1. Of all people, you would think Zechariah would believe Gabriel’s announcement, but he doesn’t. He was a priest. What are the results when pastors do not believe God’s Word?
2. This story of Elizabeth and Mary is that God exalts the humble and He humbles the proud. What evidence proves you are humble before God about your belief, your sins, your weaknesses, your failures, and your walk with Jesus Christ?
3. Why do you think people are so vulnerable to believe the lies of the devil and not the truth from God? Do you consistently believe God’s truth – meaning do you consistently apply and obey it? Why or why not?
4. If you have children or grandchildren, play a little game with them. Ask them to identify which of 3 statements you make is a lie and which two are the truth. As you do this with them, be emphatic and convincing with the lie. Then ask them to express why it was so hard for them to guess the lie unless they did. If they did, get them to tell you why they knew which was the lie. 

Scripture To Meditate On: Luke 1:45, You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said” (NLT). 

Prayer To Pray: “Father, I believe in Jesus. I believe that He was born into this world because You love me. Please help me to always believe Your word no matter what. I believe that He died on the cross to pay the price from my sins. I believe that He was resurrected to offer me a new life in You. I accept the gift of Your love, forgiveness, and life. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly