What have you feared lately? I know for me, at the end of a busy
semester, there is a lot I have been fearful about. I have feared how I
finished out the semester with grades. I have been fearful of even
thinking of all of the packing I needed to do to haul all of my things
back home for Christmas. I've feared the idea that the real world is
getting closer and closer, and I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to
do. Then there are the bigger fears that far outweigh my packing list
and report card, fears like: ISIS, the presidential election, World War
III? So how in the world am I supposed to screw a lid on the jar of all
my fears? Especially during this busy time of year, how do you and I
live joyfully, without being scared of the future?
For
me, I have learned through this past year that I actually struggle with
fear more than I realized. However, as I began to understand what a
worrier I am, I also learned of how to go forward without letting my
fears stop me from the living the life I was meant to live. When I am
going through a difficult time, I usually make myself think of all the
times in the past that the Lord has pulled me through or out of a
situation and used that situation for good. It helps me so, so much to
focus on God's faithfulness in my times of doubt. It equips me to truly
understand that if God has been by my side every time I have questioned
or doubted my situation before, why would He not do the same now?
As
I was thinking of how much this exercise has helped me this year, I
couldn't help but think of a story that had so much room for fear, yet
it is now known as the greatest story you and I know--The Christmas
Story. Now, don't roll your eyes too quickly. Yes, I know you've heard
it a hundred times. To which I would like you to know: So have I. And
yes, I know during this time of year you've heard it an extra two
hundred times. And to that thought of yours I would like you to know: I
feel your pain. But there is something so crucial about the Christmas
story that does not get told enough, a part of the story that will make
you understand why getting rid of fear should be your New Year's
resolution for 2016 and for every year after that.
Take the
Christmas story that you know oh so well, and let's go back 400 years
before Jesus was born, in the end of the Old Testament. The Lord
promised the Jewish people, who were living in a corrupt world much like
ours today, a Messiah to come and save their lives from the darkness
and sin of the world. Can you imagine? God speaking to a group of people
and telling them not worry because he is sending a man, his only son,
to save them from every piece of sin in the world. I can imagine those
scared, fearful Jews were very relieved and excited, but then, picture
this--Those same people wait 400 hundred years before God speaks to them
again and the promised Messiah is sent to Earth. FOUR HUNDRED YEARS!!
That is four generations of the world getting worse and worse and worse,
as people fear more and more and more. If God promised you something,
and then kept silent for four hundred years after you have already died
and gone to deliver His promise, wouldn't you be possibly even more
fearful than before?
The story gets worse for the Jewish
people....If God promised you a man to save the world, what kind of man
would you picture? I would hope that if it was just one man coming to
save this horrible world, he would be a big, strong, warrior-like man
riding a horse down from the clouds with lightening bolts in his hands. I
feel like that's about what it would take to intimidate and change this
dirt wad, and I'm pretty sure that's what most of the Jews at that time
were hoping for as well. However, it is very far from what they
received. Their Messiah, their superhero, their warrior with all the
power in the world, was born a baby to parents in a cave-like stable in a
horse trough. Wouldn't you be a little concerned with the God you put
your every hope in after that action? Wouldn't you be fearful of your
future and the world's future after seeing this part of God's plan? I
know I would.
Luckily for you and me, we know the Christmas Story, we know that that little baby did
save the world. The four hundred years of silence before he was born is
just what we know from a sentence we read, but I don't believe that we
really understand it. That small part of the Christmas story means
ginormous waves of peace for the life you're living and will continue to
live. If God could wait four hundred years for an already-bad world to
get worse, then send a baby to save every person in it, why would He not
pull you through now? Why would He not plan a future for you as amazing
as Jesus'? Fear Not in 2016.
XX,
Claire