MERRY CHRISTMAS - LESSONS FROM THE NATIVITY

It is Christmas and I wish you the very best Christmas you ever had. I appreciate every one that follows my blog. It is for you that God has allowed me write. Thank you for reading my articles and encouraging me to go on. I pray that you will experience again the joy of Christmas and that His presence will fill you like never before. If this has been a challenging year for you, please be assured of His love; keep trusting and loving Him. May God surround you with His love and fill your heart with His peace.  

Still learning from the nativity story; God through Mary and Elizabeth birth that which would change their lives and mankind for good forever; and place their names in the bible for good forever. Interestingly, they both set themselves apart as soon as they conceived. Elizabeth spent five months away and Mary three months with Elizabeth. It would appear that alone time is necessary when God begins to work in and through someone. It would appear that God draws us closer to Himself whenever He wants to do something new and special in and through us. It is a pull in our spirit and if we can’t spend time alone with Him, then we can’t enter into the fullness of all that He has ordained for us. 

Luke 1: 41 “and it came to pass that, when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary….Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.

Mary could have gone to spend time with her friend but she chose her older cousin instead notwithstanding the difference in age. She chose to go to someone who had experienced the workings of God and so would understand and respect God’s working in her life and through her. There are some things about you that men will forever misinterpret no matter how close they are to you or how hard you try to explain it; if the Holy Spirit does not explain it to them, it remains a mystery. These are things to ponder in your heart. Though this is season for excitement, God is pulling His own into His secret place that He might reveal to them the next level for their life. 

Luke 2: 19 “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

It is worthy of note that the miracle was finally born in a strange land. Sometimes, our miracles are born in unfamiliar terrain where you know no one and have little knowledge of what to do and yet God is there with you. Let me add that you don’t need to make any announcement if God, through you, birth a miracle; He will announce you Himself at the time and in the way He deems most appropriate. God knows how to advertise you. He may take a while but He does not intend to light a lamp and hide it. Except God did not light the lamp; if He did be patient, your time to shine is here.

Luke 2: 10-11 “And there were in the same Country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Lessons to Be Learnt From the Story Surrounding the Birth of Christ

Through this season, I shall be sharing some of the lessons I learnt from the story that surrounds the birth of Jesus Christ. I have shared some in the past but I few a more things to share. There is so much to learn to help one live life to its fullest in the story. I seem to be learning a whole lot more every time I meditate on the birth of the Messiah – Our Saviour.

John 10: 1 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber. But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.”

I am intrigued by the fact that God chose to come through the natural way human beings are meant to arrive on earth. It is worthy of note that though God could have come down in the same way He did when He visited Adam and Eve, He chose to follow the appropriate route. God is amazingly orderly. He made the rule and reserved the right to break it; and breaking it would not have diminished Him, He would have still been God. God is so committed to order that He likened anyone who comes into a thing in a disorderly fashion to a thief. Despite that the earth is rightly His; He chose the appropriate route to come down for the salvation of man. There must be strength in being orderly that adds to giving one the victory. No wonder every situation God enters, no matter how disorderly, begins to reorder itself. 

Luke 1: 38 “Mary responded, I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”

Another thing I find interesting is God’s choice of Mary. I like to imagine that there were many other virgins at the time particularly since if you were not a virgin by your wedding night, the man could divorce you. So even if it was not for the fear of God that the girls remained virgins, they would do it to prevent bringing shame upon their families. So it must have been more than her being a virgin that made God choose Mary. Upon a closer look at her discussion with the angel, I found that her heart must have been a major reason she was chosen. Mary trusted God like a child. She definitely did not understand how these things would happen but she let go and let God have His way. How hard it is to say what she said in the scripture above. God is attracted to those who love Him enough to entrust their lives to Him even without seeing where He is going.

John 11: 40 “Jesus responded, didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”

Again, it is worthy of note that Mary was an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. God did not choose someone high up in the priesthood or daughter of one of the priests for such an awesome responsibility. Instead, He chose a girl who knew Him enough to love Him enough to entrust her life to Him. God is in the business of stepping out of the “priesthood” when he wants to do a new and extraordinary thing. It has nothing to do with position but everything to do with the way you perceive Him and how much you love Him. It has everything to do with the extent to which you would entrust your life to Him.

1 Corinthians 1: 27 “Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.”

Expectations Check – Are yours Realistic?

We often have unrealistic expectations of people and vice versa. If one attempts to meet everybody’s expectations, you will not only fail but also end up frustrated; the people will be ungrateful and you totally spent. The harder you try, the higher their expectations and they keep at it until you, in trying to avoid hurting them, inadvertently step out of God’s will for your life. It is very presumptuous to assume that you can meet everybody’ expectations; It is the first step to destroying yourself. You will have to disappoint some expectations at one point or the other. Even God does not meet our every expectation which is why we sometimes murmur and complain. 

Exodus 14: 11 “And they said to Moses, ‘why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt?

The Israelites were fed up with their lives as slaves so they cried out to God hard; he heard and sent a deliverer to bring them out of Egypt and they rejoiced as they left. They had barely left before they started complaining because of unmet expectations. They expected Moses to close the deal with Pharaoh so well that Pharaoh would not come after them and he didn’t. Their expectations kept increasing as Moses tried to meet them; by the time he found out it was impossible to meet them, he already “hung himself on the cross” and died for the people who never changed. He was not the Savior who was to die for mankind. Moses learnt, albeit too late, that man’s desire is insatiable as a result of which his expectations, if not controlled by the Holy Spirit, become very unrealistic.  

John 11: 21 “Martha said to Jesus, Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Man can be so petty that He even gets disappointed in God if God does not give him that which he desires at the time he wants it and in the way He wants it. So why would mortal man think it possible for him to meet man’s every expectation. If you give of yourself, people expect you to keep giving notwithstanding the cost to you. They forget that even God does not keep giving. He gave His son who died on the cross and completed the work. He has given all He will ever give and Christ is now interceding for us that we may enjoy all that has been given for us. This may be disappointing but He will not give more than this. The truth is even if you hang on the cross for people, they will not be satisfied. But you are not even required to because Jesus already did it for all of humanity.

Luke 7: 20 “John’s two disciples found Jesus and said to Him, ‘John the Baptist sent us to ask, are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?’

John needed someone to deliver him and his expectation was that Jesus Christ should want to help. Jesus heard and understood John’s message but could not meet his expectation at the time. He had his own business to attend to; His God given purpose. Now more than ever before, believers have become so self-centered; they push really hard wanting you to give more and they get frustrated because you can’t be all they want you to be at the time they want you to be it. Don’t feel bad please, if their need is genuine, God would send the right person and it’s their job to through the Holy Spirit connect with such persons; their failure to do so does not make it your responsibility to fix the need.

Life is like a spinning wheel whose controller, are the Potter’s Hands….

Have you ever tried swinging? Children love it and it can be fun even for adults but that is if you are not too heavy for the swing. So this is what happens; the swing is pulled back and then released to take you forward. There is a limit to which it can go depending on how far it was pulled back but whether or not you get to that limit depends on how far forward you thrust yourself. Recently, it has been reminding me of life. I have been through and heard so many stories of ups and downs that there is no doubt that life is full of them and God is involved in every believer’s ups and downs which appears to make it worse. Worse because no matter how hard one tries to go forward, the restraint of God makes it impossible until God is ready to let go of the swing. It is also happened with Jesus.

Luke 12: 50 “I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and i under a heavy burden until it is accomplished.”

The ups are the happiest times but clearly they are greatly impacted by the downs. How high the swing will ever go is directly tied to how far back it is pulled. Some people go back and forth a number of times but are never able to attain to the heights directly proportional to the force created by how far back the swing was pulled because they did not thrust themselves forward as they should. The thing to do to get to the very height it can reach is to depend on the Holy Spirit to show you how to and help you push forward. It has to be the Holy Spirit working with and through you.

When I was much younger, I thought I knew everything there was to learn in life but I find as I get older that life has a lot to teach us and so we must be very slow to speak about things that pertain to life. Life keeps changing so that everything with life keep changing too; the only being with life that remains unchangeable is God the giver of life. So we keep increasing in knowledge inching closer and closer to maturity. As everything spins the best thing to do is hold on to the one who isn’t spinning and He is Jehovah. You can’t hold unto yourself because your own life is spinning too. You can’t do it yourself.

Ecclesiastes 1: 9 “History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.” 

The back and forth of life is the spinning process and the completion of a circle always brings us to another level or stage in our lives. The things we go through, as the swing goes from one high to another low and again to another high, builds the character we need to enjoy the highs yet pleasing God. Some people never attain to the heights ordained for them at every level and some die not having done as many swings as they were ordained to but that is the reality of life. We have to like Jesus, learn, through the things that we have to endure. 

Hebrews 5: 8 “Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.”

Don’t envy the man who is at the height of the swing whilst you are being pulled back and restrained; focus on your own life so that you don’t loose direction. If you lose focus or are careless with your swing, you might fall off. Sometimes we are careless because we think if we fall off someone around us waiting their turn to get on the swing might catch us but the truth is there are not many people waiting to catch you and few as they are that may want to help you, most of them have their agenda. Though gentle they may look as they pretend to be genuine, their agenda always manifests. The one sure person that catches you without an agenda is Jesus whose hands are always stretched out waiting to catch and put you back on that you may reach the very heights He has purposed for you.