This post is “Christmas – Day 19”, if you haven’t already read Day 1, please click here.

Please comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, please do that today (the form is at the bottom of the page).

Christmas – Day 19

Luke 2:15

The angels left them and went back to heaven. The shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord has told us about.”

The Thought

The angels left them and went back to heaven. The shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord has told us about.” As I read this verse that there is something missing. I cannot imagine the shepherds calmly discussing what to do next, then getting up and going.

I feel, as I read this verse that there is something missing. I cannot imagine the shepherds calmly discussing what to do next, then getting up and going, as the verse suggests. They must have been super excited! Surely they were speechless for a time, then all talking at once, and remembering teaching from their classes in the synagogue about what the prophets had said about the birth of a coming Messiah. It had been so long ago that those prophecies had been given that we can think that they had almost been forgotten, that no-one was really expecting God to move as He had “in the olden days!”

They knew He was coming one day, but they were not expecting Him!

Today most Christians know that Jesus will return as He promised (John 14:3), but how many of us live as though we are expecting Him?

In Romans 13:11 Paul assures his readers that “… our salvation is nearer than when we first believed”. That is of course still true today, but who knows when we will meet the Saviour face to face?

Action

Pray today that the Lord will make you ready for anything. Pray that He will raise your expectation of His return. Ask Him to prepare you, and keep you active so that when He comes He will find you doing what He has called you to do. Pray for a new encouragement to be doing His work.

The shepherds were a group (we don’t know how many), do you have a group to share excitements with? Pray for others to feel the same way as you do with enthusiasm for the things of God. Thank Him for those around you who share your faith and joy in Jesus.