I’ve always loved the sights, the sounds, and the smells of the Holiday season—from beautifully decorated gifts and house fronts to Christmas music playing everywhere you go to delicious treats like Peppermint Bark and warm Hot Chocolate. Face it! There’s no other time of year that you can get away with going around singing things like “Fa la la la la la la la!”, without people looking at you strangely. As enjoyable as all that is for those of us who love Christmas, that’s not what the day and season are all about. It’s really about a promise that was given, being fulfilled—it’s about taking God at His Word. In its simplest form, Christmas really is a reminder to Believe!
Luke 1:45 NIV
Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Elizabeth proclaimed these prophetic words when she greeted Mary and the miracle baby in her womb, John the Baptist, lept when Elizabeth encountered Mary. God had promised to send the Messiah to deliver His people and Christmas time is when we celebrate and commemorate the birthing of that promise to Mary, Gods’ People, and His enemy.
Mary was promised that she would bear a Son, who:
“… will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” -- Luke 1:32-33 NIV
Although this seemed impossible to the natural mind, since she was a virgin, God did exactly what He promised. If the people of Mary’s day, who were looking for the Messiah, had been asked, “How will the Messiah come into the earth?” In their wildest imaginations, probably none of them would have come up with the method that God actually used. So many times we get frustrated in the wait because we don’t understand God’s methods, but that is when we have to trust His Heart. However, He is moving or seemingly not moving in your life may seem a strange way to accomplish what He promised, but according to His plans it is the perfect way. And Mary by faith received the word of God and birthed a promise that not only changed her life, but changed the world.
The promise of the birth of Jesus was not given only to Mary but to the people of God as a whole. All the way back in the Book of Isaiah, approximately 700 years before Jesus was born to Mary, the Lord proclaimed through His prophet:
Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.
God delivered on this promise through Jesus. The birth of Jesus birthed the government of the Kingdom of God into the earth. And it all occurred in a remote manger with only a few shepherds and animals to bear witness. The manifestation of the promises of God in your life, may not be immediately recognized by everyone. But God is faithful to perform what He said, even when people don’t immediately recognize it.
Lastly, the first official promise of the Messiah was made in the Garden of Eden. And it was made to the enemy of God, the Devil. God said to the serpent (Satan), “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). This coming Seed that will crush the head of Satan was promised by God and is none other than Jesus. God fulfills His promises even to the enemy of his utter defeat and destruction.
Luke 1:37-38
For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”
Whatever challenges you may be facing this Holiday season, remember this—God keeps His Promises. We do our part and align with Him and His Word. Then, we take Him at His Word!
As we come to the close of this year and are eagerly anticipating 2020 – a new decade, a year of supernatural insight and revelation, don’t write off 2019! God is not through. We need only Believe!
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