Dare to Believe

^{Genesis 17:19}

¹⁹ Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

So imagine God speaks to you. God makes you a promise. What would you do? Would you fall on your face laughing? Would you limit the scope of what God can do?

That is exactly what happened in our scripture. Abraham, upon hearing the promise of a son born to his wife Sarah at 90 years old, fell on his face laughing. Then as if to say “I believe in your promise and power somewhat, but not that much”, he said to God, “How about you bless my existing son instead?” Now we can give Abraham a little bit of a break, as he did not have the advantage of Matthew 1:1-17 where the 42 generation lineage of his son Isaac to the Messiah is documented. We do though. We have the proof of God’s promises kept.

So, are we not even more guilty than Abraham when we prepare so elaborately for the celebration of the birth of the Christ child, yet don’t believe in our hearts that His grace is for us? The promise of being washed clean and forgiven is for us. Yet we say, “we believe in your importance enough to have a big birthday party for you over two thousand years later, but accepting that you believe we are as worthy as we are, now that’s too much.”

I wonder how it would change the way we celebrate this season if we were to really believe? Not just believing in Jesus as the son of God on the surface, but truly believing in all of the promises that go with it. No longer would we worry about “measuring up” to the standards the world are setting up for us. Suddenly getting the perfect gift, spending the right amount of money, or throwing the greatest party would no longer set the standard of getting Christmas “right”.

Instead, it would truly be about the celebration of the birth of the One who became our Savior.

“Dear Father in heaven help us to truly believe in the promises you have given to us, so that we may prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ not only as your son, but as our Savior. Amen”