Advent Daily Devotional - Day 10

Luke 2:15 & 16 

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger” 

Whenever we read a passage like this, we always ask “Why shepherds?” rather than the more important question as to why angels singled shepherds out above others. 

It is my opinion that we tend to apply a lot of world views rather than God's view on things. 

It links to another passage found in 1 Corinthians 1:27 “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” 

You see, in too many cultures we elevate ourselves too much: there are far more courses on leadership than on servanthood, we talk of ambition as a good thing, and we lower things like volunteer work or “stay-at-home” parenting to being “nice” rather than hugely valuable.  

The Wesley Brothers’ profound impact on bringing revival to the UK and preventing civil war put high value on their mother’s prayers and instruction. Now that is having an impact!! 

I have also seen this impact through the work of the Food Pantry at the Kerith Farnborough site. 

Too often, as a Society, we ignore the “foolish things” such as stopping to pray, listening rather than speaking when things are tough and we wrongly assume that it is God’s judgement rather than a blessing; things like thanking people for the “small” things aren’t extras but are vitally important. 

Over the last few months, I have increasingly learned that we need always to be grateful to God and to thank Him in all things.  

You see the fruits of the Spirt such as love, joy, peace, patience and so forth aren’t supposed to be weak and “wishy-washy” and only for the good times but forged and purified in the furnace of adversity and then used for far stronger, impactful purposes afterwards.  

This is why we need to be grateful to Him. 

The shepherds here, for me, show the characteristics that God looks for. After being terrified, they immediately actioned what they had been asked to do and went to see the Messiah. They showed what God wants of us all. 

In this season, let’s learn to be more like the shepherds and have that amazing wonder of God’s miraculous birth as we celebrate this Christmas. 

Questions 

Can you think of something that God is asking you to do?  

How could you step out in action today in obedience? 

Today's devotional was written by Charles Ravenhill.