Christmas Confidence

Luke 1:46-55

Christmas Confidence

Christmas is a time to celebrate Christ's birth, but it is a reminder that every Sunday is a celebration to celebrate that birth. It reminds us of the conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the servant. We find great joy in the coming of Christ. We find great love of all aspects of Christmas. And now we move to the idea of confidence in Christmas. We see with this passage the confidence that Mary had with God and His promise to her. We also look at Miriam and Moses and Hannah's songs from the Old Testament. We compare the songs of Hannah and Mary side by side and we see so many similarities between them. It is obvious that Mary was shaped by Scriptures, aware of Hannah's song and confidence in The Lord. The challenge in their songs is to see all of life this way, formed and shaped by the Scriptures. 

Confidence Promise #1: God remembers His promises to His covenant people. He has helped His servant Israel. God remembers His mercy and promises. We have confidence in the present and the future because God has kept His promises of the past. He does all that He does for Himself as His motivating cause and His people always benefit from it. Mary has picked up a theme from Psalms - her song here is woven with the words of the Psalmist. God remembers His everlasting love and mercy, we find this in Jeremiah. God has not forgotten us and we see this in our Scriptures. The word remember here is not used as a recall, but an acting upon the memory. God promised and did not just keep the promise but kept it and acted out His promises. God demonstrated this by the pregnancy of Mary and the holy birth of Christ. 

Confidence Promise #2: God is no respecter of persons. Simeon and Anna...even shepherds, all were shown the Christ child. God does not show favor towards those high and lifted up above others. Those of poverty are granted heaven and a glimpse of the great joy of heaven through Christ. The problem is not the rich and the poor. God does not prefer the poor over the rich. It is that God takes care of His children. The antithesis is not between the rich and poor, the real antithesis is between God's covenant and those outside the covenant. Christ, Himself, came from the line of David, a king. God raised up a Messiah and used the most unlikely scenario to bring it about. There is no one to whom God would not stoop to save. All are within His fold. We can have great confidence in our missionary mindset as well to know that God takes all. 

Confidence Promise #3: History is God-directed. God has done all the doing. God has put down the mighty and brought up the lowly. It is not time plus chance plus circumstance. It is all carefully orchestrated in God's own direction. History is person, it is not one action because of another, it is one action of God, after another action of God. God is the one doing all the doing. History is brought about by the finger of God. We are supercharged with meaning because God gives us that meaning. 

Confidence Promise #4: God is our Savior. He remembered Israel and sent His son to save those outside of the faith. We have been reconciled and He has become our propitiation. We have the confidence that we are a saved and redeemed people because God is our Savior. This is an unforgettable truth. He always has been and always will be our personal Savior who has committed our sins to Himself so that He has wiped away our sins without any assistance from us. He needs no assistance. All contribution to salvation belongs to Him and none can go towards us.