Daily Reading // Luke 2:8-20
READY // SILENCIO
Take a moment to quiet your mind and prepare your heart for your time with the Lord.
READ // LECTIO
Read the passage above up to threw times aloud. Allow yourself to feel the words as they are read.
REFLECT // MEDITATIO
Now direct your focus on the words, phrases concepts or sentences that got your attention. What is God speaking to you today through His word?
Luke 2:9-10 (NKJV) 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
Not everything we fear is bad.
The angel of the Lord who came to the shepherds was a single angel. One angel. We don’t know the angel’s name. It could have been Gabriel, or Michael. These are two angels who have appeared in the past, whose names we are given. We don’t know the identity of this angel.
We don’t know anything about the appearance of this angel. Too bad. It would be nice to know what about the appearance of this angel caused the shepherds to be afraid. When the angel said, “Fear not”, it wasn’t on the off-chance that they might be afraid. We know by biblical account that they were, in fact, greatly afraid.
Remember again that this was one singular angel. There were more of the shepherds than one angel. Yet they were afraid.
The angel said, “Do not be afraid.” They didn’t need to be afraid. In fact, the one they feared was bringing good news. The thing they feared was not for their bad but for their good.
I’m that way, too. Sometimes the thing I most fear is actually for my good. God’s Word says He works all things together for my good. Like this angel, something in my life may elicit fear but it is actually a messenger of good news.
How many times in my life does the thing that I fear actually bring me good news, if I can just overcome my fear?
What happens next would have given them all a coronary if this single angel would not have prepared them beforehand. This angel was joined by a heavenly host - meaning an innumerable group of angels. If one angel made them greatly afraid what would this gang of angels have done to them?
God is good to give me progressions as I can handle it. I want to keep up every step of the way.
RESPOND // ORATIO
Pray in response to what the Lord has spoken to you.
Lord, Give me peace in the face of every circumstance: known or unknown; natural or supernatural. Amen.