A Thrill of Hope - Week 3: Day 1

Guided by the Light
 
Pause for just a moment and write down the things that guide you in your life, things that guide your direction or destination and the things that you really rely on to do so.

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One of the things I enjoy most about where I live is the ability to go outside, and with no interference from artificial light, I can look at the stars. I never realized how many there were, still don’t honestly, but to look at them is incredible. Some are brighter than others, some appear lower than others, and some appear to be blinking. Oh, but wait…those are just the planes.

I have always wondered how the three wise men knew to walk toward a certain star in the sky. The Bible says they followed it, but I doubt it was going anywhere, that would have really got everyone’s attention. Still, in the vastness of the sky how did they know which one was which, there must have been something really special about that star.
Matthew writes in chapter 2:2, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” People often try to distinguish how the wise men actually knew which star, or how they followed the star, or how God parted the Red Sea, how Jonah survived the whale, or how manna fell from heaven. I don’t know other than to know that the power of God is real, and He is able. I say that confidently and without hesitation.

So, when it comes to passages like this, and I see the wise men guided by a star, it really just tells me they were guided by God, and that God guides us all in a manner that we can relate to, identify, and walk in with confidence. That is not the same as following your feelings or thoughts or doing what you think is right…while there is nothing wrong with those things, the one thing that we have to guide us is God’s unchanging Word.  We can rely on that, and when we follow that, we will be following or we will be being guided by the real Star, Jesus Christ.
If you look carefully at one of the differences between Luke’s account and Matthew’s account of the signs of the virgin birth and the declaration of the born Messiah to a particular audience, you will see that in Luke, God uses the Romans to guide and  fulfill prophecy and in Matthew, God uses creation to guide and fulfill prophecy. When we look at scripture from both angles, it makes the birth and fulfillment of prophecy much more profound and indisputable, which in turn should offer us additional confidence.

One lesson is plain in both accounts - that is God is leading non-believers to Him for the sole purpose of worship. He desires people to worship Him. That worship includes both word (speech) and deed (action) (Colossians 3:1).

If that is His desire for the non-believing world, how much more so for the believers that have placed their faith in Him and are confessing Him as Lord and Savior? It is time to come back from Covid. Many folks have used Covid and the quarantine as a vehicle to do everything but come together and worship. During Advent this year, my prayer is that we will let God guide us, our every step, and if we do, we will come back from the wilderness (Covid) and begin placing God at the center of everything that we do. That is His rightful place, especially at Christmas time.

Will you take a few moments and use this time to ask God to guide you, through His Word in for His glory this Christmas season?