Greetings to all who may be reading my blog for the month of December. My prayer for you is that you are sensing the Lord’s favor and provision in your life at this time for He is nothing short of FAITHFUL!!!!

I don’t know about you but for me it seems like the Christmas season suddenly and without warning came upon us; (I think the older we get the more we are prone to feel this way) As I approach my most favorite time of the year, I seem to be finding myself not feeling as joyful, as festive as I normally do at this time of the year. Yet after speaking to a number of people, I discovered that I was not alone in feeling this way. I then began to ask the Holy Spirit as to why I, as well as many others, felt this way.

In Luke 2:1-20 we find the account of the birth of Jesus. There are so many beautiful teachings in this story to focus on that it would take us a lifetime to learn. For my blog this month I would like to focus on one particular verse; Luke 2:19 “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”  I looked up the definition of the word ponder and it said: ‘To think deeply about, to consider carefully’

There will be things in life that from time to time, we will be called to think deeply about or consider carefully. For example: ‘what am I going to do in life; who will I marry, where will I live, what job should I take, what will I need to do so I will have a retirement, etc. etc.’ When we think deeply and consider carefully these things as well many others things, they can become be very discouraging and even overwhelming if we are not careful

Let me go back to my issue, if you will, of not feeling as joyful or festive as I normally would at the most favorite time of the year. Too often I am guilty of allowing  outside forces, people, circumstances, feelings of uncertainty, a presidential election, or whatever it may be, to shape how I look at things; how peaceful I am in my heart, forgetting the wonderful truth that no matter the situation or circumstance, the Ancient of Days is still on the throne and He cares about me! There have been times when I have sensed a peace from the Lord about something or a decision I have come to, only to allow that peace taken from me by some of the very things I listed. When I allow that to happen, I begin to question if I even heard from the Lord in the first place; how about you.

Proverbs 15:22 “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.” Proverbs 20:18a “Make plans by seeking advice.” Understand it is wise for us to seek Godly counsel whenever we come to an important decision we may need to make if we feel unsure about something. Yet it is even more wise to seek the counsel of the Lord and stay with that counsel no matter what we may hear or feel, for often the Lord will ask us to do things, take steps of faith, that to the normal person, do not make any sense at all. (there are plenty of examples found of that taking place in the Word)

David declares in Psalm 16:7-8 “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” David also declares in Psalm 32:8 “I (Lord) will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” David could only say this because he had developed such an intimate relationship with the Lord that the Lord’s voice, the Lord’s counsel, overruled other words of counsel and other voices, even his own.

Too often we find people are more quick to say, ‘I told you so,’ if we have stepped out in faith believing we have heard something from the Lord and a storm arises or a trouble comes than we find people who will stand with us and believe the Lord no matter the circumstances. Yes, every thing we may sense the Lord has asked of us in our life must always be based on the Word of God, for He would never ask anything of us that is contrary to His word. Yet as I said, there are also many times in the Word where we see the Lord ask people to do some strange things that would freak most of us out if He had asked us to do that.

Looking back to our text in Luke 2:1-20, there was a lot of deep stuff that was placed on the shoulders of Mary ,who many commentators feel was a just very young girl at the time; a visit from the angel Gabriel that would be very hard to prove to anyone; getting pregnant when the Holy Spirit came upon her which would surely bring a lot of questions and possible shame from those who would say yea right; knowing the child she would bear would be called the Son of God are just a few of those many deep things.

A lot of fuss was made about Jesus, Mary’s child, whom the angels declared, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.“ As Mary pondered about everything that was currently taking place around her and what laid before her child Jesus, she may have thought, Hmmm; wouldn’t you. Yet we don’t hear where Mary ask too many questions, though I am sure questions were there.

I believe the answer to keeping our joy, our peace, not only during Christmas but throughout every situation we may face, every decision we make or task we have been called by the Lord to do, is summed up in Mary’s response to everything the angel Gabriel said to her; Luke 1:38 “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Servant are not always given the reason why they have been asked to do something by their master, they just trust and obey their master’s command.

Though not everyone will always agree with us in all that we do and in every decision we make in life; though life may deal us some unfair things, though we may have those Hmmm moments to something we sense the Lord may be asking us to do, if we sense we have heard from the Lord then our only response to the Lord should be as Mary’s, May it be to me as You have said. I want to wish each and everyone a very blessed and joyful Christmas. Feliz Navidad amigos!!!!