WITH : A 10-Day Christmas Bible PlanSample

HAVE YOURSELF A MESSY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

Through heartache or great suffering, we may be tempted to wonder where God is. But He’s with us always. A look at the life of Joseph may give us insight into how God works through us.

When Joseph found out Mary was pregnant, he was devastated. The Bible tells us Joseph was a righteous man, so he would have revered the law deeply. To accept Mary as his wife when she was pregnant by another man would have been devastating to his reputation in his culture. Joseph grieved, likely agonizing over how to act in light of what had happened. Ultimately, he decided to divorce Mary quietly, doing what he could to protect her life while also guarding his own.

We know through Scripture that God intervened on Joseph’s plan. What is interesting, though, is that God allowed Joseph first to wrestle. Joseph goes through deep pain, lands on a plan of action, and only then does God say He wants Joseph to make a different choice. (Think about all the character building within us that would be short-circuited were God to step in prematurely in our decision-making.)

Often as Christ followers, we have a vision in mind for how our lives ought to turn out. Sometimes, unknowingly, we may develop a faith of propriety where we think if just we worship well, we’ll live the lives we want to live. Joseph likely thought if he obeyed God and did good things, in turn, good things would happen to him. Surely he didn’t picture Mary becoming pregnant and as a result, having to face potential public humiliation and dishonor. But God had other plans.

In today's video we talk about the trouble with a faith of propriety: it can unintentionally be transactional. We expect life to go according to our script…until it doesn’t. Then we must find God WITH us in the mess––where life looks different than we thought it would.

Joseph modeled this for us well. God told him to take Mary as his wife, Jesus as his son. That’s what Joseph did.

And that’s exactly how we can choose to live––with God. Immanuel.