Sunday, December 19, 2010
SCRIPTURE READING
Luke 2:15-18, 20 (NIV); When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them... The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
After seeing the heavenly manifestation, the shepherds could not be silent. They immediately took off for Bethlehem to see the Christ child and from there went about the area spreading the message that they had heard and had now seen! She tenders of sheep had become the messengers of God!
How often do we experience the greatness of God and do nothing? We are delivered from a bondage to sin, we find victory in a certain area, we receive a spiritual gift, or God provides for us using incredible means, yet we are silent. What keeps our tongues from “glorifying and praising God for all of the things [we’ve] heard and seen”?
On the other hand, we are sometimes quick to proclaim our own greatness, our own achievements. We take pride in getting credit for a job well done or for a “natural skill” or even a God-given spiritual gift! Our tongues flap uselessly over our own accomplishment while God reigns unnoticed.
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you have ignored recent opportunities to give God glory in your conversations with others. What has stopped you?
2. Articulate some of the things that God has been doing in your life recently. Ask the Lord how can you get beyond these victories being just between you and God and start to use them in your interactions with others.
3. How is God asking you to step up in this area of proclaiming His truth to those around you? Ask Him how you can grow in this with your thoughts, words, attitudes and actions.
