Ponder the Promises
- Message: Reading through Luke 2 was so familiar. Even people who don’t go to church have heard this narration of the birth of Jesus so pushing past the familiarity of this chapter, I noticed a pattern about Mary even though I have heard these words more times than I can count…”Mary pondered these things in her heart.” This was said when the shepherds came to see baby Jesus and they told Mary & Joseph what God had shown them. The same thing was said again when Jesus was left behind in Jerusalem at twelve years old and he told his parents “why did you need to search? Didn’t you know I must be in my Father’s house?” Mary had heard from an angel, she had heard from prophets and she was hearing from the mouth of her son a lot of incredible things about his life. Although these prophecies had some very specific things in them I can’t imagine the awe and wonder she felt as she walked it out and watched things unfold. I love that her response was quiet and she pondered these things in her heart.
- Command: Don’t try to figure out the details of God’s promises. You never will! Instead we should ponder them in our hearts as we watch them unfold over time.
- Promise: God’s promises never fail.
- Warning: Often times God’s promises take longer than we would have hoped, and they rarely come out looking the way we imagined them to look. We can’t get stuck in our own imagination. We need to ponder these promises in our hearts so we don’t get off track and miss it entirely!
- Application: I was so amazed by Mary’s response. She was quiet and she pondered everything in her heart that was told to her. This was wisdom modeled for us because the truth is, none of us knows what God’s promises will actually look like. We have an outline idea at best and if we aren’t thinking about what God said, we will be concocting our own ideas based upon our own ideas and our own desires. This spoke loudly to me as I have thought about the dreams and visions in my heart and how much my imagination has gotten carried away with them. It’s good to know God has plans and promises for me but I really need to ponder them and pray as they unfold so I don’t chase a rabbit trail to my own ideas and miss the actual plan God has completely!
