Daily Archive

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

The Angels did much more than take away the fear of the Shepherds. They went a step further and offered hope. That’s important because too many times the answers society offers promise to take away our fear, but offer nothing in return.

It’s easy to sit around the coffee cup and redefine the problems and discuss possible solutions, or ‘if only’s’ but once the coffee is gone and we walk back out into the world, nothing has changed. In fact, they can sometimes be worse.

While the answers the world gives offer no lasting solutions, God not only takes away our fear, he replaces it with hope! The Angels announced two things to the shepherds that night on the hillside. One was consolation (Fear not) the other hope (a Savior is born). Their song created consolation in the midst of fear and hope in the midst of darkness.

Look up the meaning of Savior to see the hope that was offered through the babe in the manger.  The Savior, Jesus Christ offers us:

• Safety: not safety from trails because he promised us there would be trials, but safety in the midst of trials!
• Deliverance: We are delivered from the power of sin in our lives, the guilt of our past; the enemy of our soul.
• Preservation: Closely tied to safety, we are preserved in the trials of life. Jesus refers to us as the ‘salt of the earth.’ Salt not only adds flavor, it preserves against the elements.
• New Life: The old is gone, the new has come. Jesus didn’t come to remodel us; he came to change us completely, to make us new creations.
• Escape: The enemy of our soul doesn’t mind if we are spiritual as long as he can keep us bound to our past and failures. Jesus broke the bonds. Just as Peter walked out of prison a free man, we can repent and walk away from the bondage of our past through the Savior.
• Someone to confide in: Each of us has skeletons in the closet. Those fears, worries, doubts, hateful feelings that hide in the inner corners of our hearts, waiting to attack us in our weakness. When there is no one else to talk to we can come to Jesus. He listens without judgment and accepts us without condition.

• Hope: That’s really all the above in a nutshell. The tantalizing things of this world (relationships, money, status and power) can’t offer us the one thing we all long for. Hope for tomorrow.

To the shepherds the song of hope came through the angels. To us it comes through forgiveness, the cross, the Word and the family of God.

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for the Angel Song of Hope in the midst of our darkness. Thank you for Jesus who goes beyond all our fears to offer us unending hope. In the name of our Savior, Amen.