Getting ahead of the season a bit. Thinking of how it takes faith to see answers to prayer. Simeon and Anna saw in baby Jesus God answering prayers and fulfilling promises for the consolation and redemption of Israel. That was not obvious to the eye of flesh. Only hearts and heads full of Scripture mixed with an experience of the immediate witness and revelation of the Holy Spirit could have led to such insight.
Getting even more ahead of the spiritual season into the next big season (thought not as speedily as Cadbury with their cream eggs in the shops already!), what about this verse from Hebrews? “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his godly fear (5:7).” It would not have looked at all obvious around the foot of the cross that the One who could save Jesus from death was at work, but He was. Who could have looked at the cross and believed for rescue and salvation of a lifeless man marred beyond human semblance except through a gift of faith and holding on to the insight of Scripture that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and then enter His glory?
I pray for you and for myself that God would open our eyes and help us to see truly. I would love it if this Christmas and in 2018, I could live with an expectation of Promises from God in the Bible being fulfilled, sensitive to the immediate witness of the Spirit when He seeks to tell me when that is happening. I want to see and hear more truly. I want that for any of you who read this too…Oh I know we see as in a glass dimly, still, “Take some of the dimness of my soul away, Lord. You could take away quite a lot in my case and still leave enough to prove the “seeing dimly in a glass” bit remains true.”
Since this may be my last blog before Christmas (equally, it may not be!), Happy Christmas one and all. “God bless us, every one!”
Kenny
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