By Barbara Rainey
First posted on EverThineHome.com
In most tragedies you’ll find a story about a savior.
During mass shootings there are people who protect others with their bodies, or people who try to overpower the shooter, and always people who step in to stop the bleeding and keep injured victims alive. After tornadoes someone always steps up to rescue the trapped, to hold someone’s hand, to pray. Often unnamed, these men and women are doing what Jesus did and still does for us: provide saving help.
The greater tragedy today is too many of us, even many who claim to know Jesus, are unaware that we are bleeding and broken, in need of Jesus’ daily saving grace and mercy and power. We try to cover our inadequacies, our failures, our gaping wounds with performance, power, and addictions of all kinds instead of going first to our Savior. By His amazing grace and love He chose instead to come to us first.
Those in the Old Testament who believed knew God was their Savior, for He told them plainly, “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11).
But on a cold dark night this name, Savior, was given to a real in the flesh baby lying unnoticed in a feeding trough.
Stunned shepherds heard a startling nighttime birth announcement delivered by an angel who stood before them surrounded by light as bright as the sun:
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
The delivery was unlike any birth announcement we get in the mail declaring name, date and weight, yet the angelic announcement did reveal the baby’s name: Savior. These Jewish men and boys—whose lives were rough, dirty and lonely —were told a name they understood to mean Messiah, the long awaited and promised rescuer of their people.
What kind of Savior did the shepherds need? What kind of Savior do you need need?
Consider that the very first people who lived on earth were also the first ones to need a Savior.
Adam and Eve chose their own way over God’s way and became forever trapped in bondage to a body that would die instead of living forever. You and I are their children, alive in bodies that are broken by sin and utterly unable to reach God’s standard of holiness.
But because God loves us He sent Jesus to be our Savior!
Celebrate your salvation today and may your joy be great on Christmas Day!
My Heart, Ever His: Prayers for Women (NEW from Barbara Rainey)
As we search for meaning in our world of shallow online relationships and glamorized selfies, many are returning to traditional and liturgical churches. The repeated words, benedictions, and historic hymns connect us to saints who have gone before, giving us a sense of belonging, richness, and transcendence. Written prayers, once cast off as archaic, are now welcomed as guides to tune our hearts to the heart of God.
In My Heart, Ever His Barbara Rainey shares 40 prayers for women. Readers can read and meditate on one prayer throughout the week or read a prayer a day for 40 days as a way to express the longing of our hearts to our Father who loves us even as he sees who we truly are. Like the psalms of David, these prayers are honest, sometimes raw. Barbara uses these transparent expressions of common female experiences to encourage us to surrender to Christ and help us see God as he is, not as we assume him to be. My Heart, Ever His provides a stepping-stone to help you become more transparent with God and discover his welcoming embrace.
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