Escape to Egypt

 Cup Prayer – This prayer will help you pour your heart out to God (Ps. 62:8). Begin with your hands folded together like an upside-down cup. Pour out before God all your fears, anxieties, guilt, sin and shame. Tell Him what troubles you. Take time to be specific. When you feel like you’ve poured out your heart, flip your hands over, folding them like an open cup, ready to receive from God. Sit in silence, asking God simply to fill you with His Spirit. If your mind runs back to sin, shame, anxiety or concerns of the day, flip your hands back over and pour it out to the Lord. When you are finished praying, read today’s Scripture and listen as God shares His heart back with you.

Study the Scripture

Read in  Matthew 2:13-23

REFLECTION

Good News?

by Mary McGinnis 

The story of Christmas, of Jesus’ birth has many surprises. Mary is surprised when the Angel Gabriel tells her she will be the mother of God’s Son. Joseph is surprised when the Angel tells him to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Elizabeth is surprised when baby John leaps in her belly when Mary comes to visit. The Shepherds were surprised when the Angels announce to them the Good News that the Savior had been born, in Bethlehem, and was lying in a manger.  Mary and Joseph are surprised when Kings came to worship the infant Jesus and brought with them gold, frankincense a myrrh. All these surprises confirmed the message of the Angels, that God had sent His only Son, and this good news brought GREAT JOY!  

Evil, paranoid King Herod was surprised too. He was surprised to hear of a newborn king. He did not want anyone usurping his throne, not even a vulnerable little baby. He determined to destroy Him, so he ordered all the male babies in Bethlehem to be murdered. 

To be honest, I do not like this part of the Christmas story. My heart wants to cry out, “Why God did you let those innocent children die? You could have stopped this!” 

Today while reading this, it came to me. Jesus came in the flesh, born into a messed up, chaotic, evil world! This is exactly the message of Christmas. He came into our pain, into our suffering, into a world where the injustice of the powerful seems to win and the weak and vulnerable are trampled underfoot.  

God came for us for this very this very reason. Amid this painful grief, the rest of the story had not yet unfolded. Joseph was guided by the Holy Spirit to protect the God incarnate, the infant Jesus. All the prophecies and promises of Scripture were unfolding, one layer at a time.

God’s plan for rescuing us from the darkness of sin and evil would NOT be overcome. Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

We cannot fully realize the goodness of the Good News of Jesus birth, if we do not also face the messiness, the chaos, the injustice and evil in this world. He came to bring light into this dark, dark place. 

“Little children (believers, dear ones), you are of God and you belong to Him and have [already] overcome them [the agents of the antichrist]; because He who is in you is greater than he (Satan) who is in the world [of sinful mankind].” 1 John 4:4 AMP

Take courage, my friends, even in times of grief. He who is in YOU is greater than he who is in the world!  He conquered death, Satan, and all of Hades when He rose from the dead. And He is coming back soon! He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! 

Where do you need the hope of the Christmas story to speak into a dark place in your life?  Where do you need to hear that God’s story of rescue is not yet over, that He is still working?