Zechariah 4:1-5:11, Revelation 14:1-20, Psalm 142:1-7, Proverbs 30:21-23
Prayer: Lord, our hearts are yearning to experience something fresh and new. We do not want Christmas to just be another day. Lord, we pray that Your message will come to us as clearly as it did Zechariah, who spoke of the power of God to move mountains.
Read: We read in Zechariah, an often quoted verse, which speaks to the Lord’s work through faithful folks, “Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” We have a tendency to take charge and feel that the outcome is all up to us. We should pray as if the outcome all depended on God but work as if it all depended on us. We have a responsibility to do our best while yielding to the Lord’s capacity to work through us in amazing ways.
Edify: The number 144,000 in Revelation is often one of the most misunderstood symbolic numbers in the scriptures. Some have come to believe that this is the number of persons who are going to heaven. Most scholars do not even mention this as a viable option, rather it can be one among several options: 1) A faithful and loyal people who bear the mark of their Lord, 2) A representation of refuge and safety for those who have suffered and yearn for peace, 3) A mark of ownership—belonging to something beyond ourselves, 4) Security or 5) Dependence upon the God who created us. In other words, we who follow Christ are highly valued.
Practice: We strive to measure up and feel important in life. Our desire to measure up often eclipses our innate desire to experience God. The Psalmist speaks for us all in saying, “you are my refuge, you are all I want in life”. How would I live my life differently today if the Lord was truly my refuge? How would my focus change today if I truly believed that the Lord is all I need?
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