about following God’s directions

In the middle of shopping, wrapping, parties, and celebrations you can forget about having "God with us." What is so dramatic about the Christmas story is that God did become "with us" as a human being. Before Jesus’ birth, God was remote from mankind. God was in heaven and interacted with man but not as a human being. God was unseen, remote, and for the most part silent. When Jesus came into the world, God was interacting with all of us on a human to human level.

God chose Joseph to be a human model to be Jesus’ father. In this verse, we can see not only that Joseph was righteous in his heart, Joseph was also willing and able to do exactly what God wanted done. We don’t know much about Joseph from the scripture accounts, but what we do know is more than enough to tell us about Joseph’s character and willingness to lead his life as God directed. We also know Joseph was a man who loved Mary. Let all of us strive to be like Joseph before our Savior and always strive to follow His direction in our lives.

about future glory

Glory, power, victory, grace, love, abundance, and peace...these are words which describe our future. "Glory" is the best word in this group but even the word "glory" can not describe the whole future for us. We often lose sight of our real future. When we think of the future, we think about tomorrow, next week, or next year. As the apostle Paul reminds us, present pain and suffering cannot compare to our future glory. With our eyes on this future glory, we gain a new vision of our present life. The worst circumstance for any person is to be in suffering and not have a vision and hope for the future. When we have a vision and a hope for the future, no darkness can overtake us, and no suffering can keep us down. Each of us has a glorious future in Christ Jesus.

about standing before God

Each of us, individually, will stand before God. When you stand before God, the whole and complete truth about you and about your life will be there with you. Every thought, word, and deed will be there.

• You will get to see how you helped and hurt others in our lives. All the consequences of every thought and action will be there.
  
  
• You will get to see inside the lives of others.
  
  
• You will see your mistakes, your pains, and your successes.
  
  
• You will see where you could have done something but were ignorant and did nothing.
  
  
• You will see when you could have done something but you turned your back in callous disregard.
  
  
• You will see the times when you did do things but the things you did were not what God wanted.

When you stand before God there will be no more games to play with Him. There will be no more rationalizations, no more excuses, no more complaints, and no more whining because all the truth will be there. When that moment comes for you, will you look back on your life and see that you gave your very best to live according to what the scripture teaches?

about our thirst

Many times, in this life we have a thirst. Often we thirst for things which Satan and the powers of darkness want us to drink. These things are the temptations of life that will addict us and sooner or later eat our soul. We thirst and are often tempted by power, greatness, pleasure, greed, and other sins. However, if we thirst for right things or righteousness there is a reward.

When we make decisions to seek after only the good, true, wonderful spiritual things, then God provides us with springs of living water. Notice in this verse the caring and compassionate nature of God. God is love, and when we hunger and thirst to always do and be what is good in God’s eyes, then there may be trouble in the here and now, but there is the reward of heaven in our immediate future. In God’s heavenly home, we will drink our fill of water supplied from the springs of Heaven. Water which will bring us joy, peace, love, and rewards beyond our comprehension.

about receiving the truth

We always want to hear the truth if the truth is good news. When the truth is bad news we would rather take a pass on it and not face it. When a cancer screening comes back positive, we do not want to hear about it. However, even if the truth is something we do not want to hear, we need to hear it so we can take action. The truth about a cancer screening can save our lives or add years to our lives. When we pray, we must pray for the truth and the strength to hear it and deal with it. When we pray for the spiritual truth and strength God is good and will give us power to deal with whatever life brings our way.