LUKE 2:16-20 – “And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
THEME OF THE DAY: THE SURE PROCESS TO A BARREN AND DRY SOUL. What a night that would have been! To be at the place of Jesus’ birth and an eyewitness of the incarnation – Immanuel, God with us! The buzz in the air electrified those in attendance. How could it not? Just observe the shepherds. They first were told by the angelic host of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8-17). They wasted no time and immediately went to affirm this amazing event. And what did they do when they saw the Godman in the cradle? They could not be quiet. They returned to their fields with quite a skip in their steps and words of praise from their lips over the great news of the Savior.
What about the response of Mary, our Lord’s mother? No doubt she was overwhelmed with humble excitement. Go back to Luke 1 beginning in verse forty-six and read what is known as The Magnificat. She bursts forth with worship and submission. Yet, observe her in today’s scripture – “And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” She treasured up, pondered in her heart, all this news of Jesus’ birth and the reality of the Lord’s favor upon her. She meditated upon Him and the truth surrounding Him.
In Mary’s response is the key, not a key, the key to a healthy, growing, and spiritually alive walk with the Lord Jesus. We might title what she did with words like: Mary, Meditating Upon on the Lord or The Contemplative Life: Spiritual Growth Assured. What Mary did safeguards us from a stale, routine, and lifeless walk with the Lord Jesus. No, we don’t lose our salvation, but we won’t walk in the joy of salvation. That only comes from disciplined alone time with the Lord in His Word and prayer meditating. No rush reading or being satisfied with a “spiritual snack” of a devotion. This is a time of “programmed solitude” to get to know Him, behold Him, and not simply to ask Him for things. It is the discipline of Biblical meditation.
Edmund Calamy described meditation as “dwelling upon the mercies we receive, the chewing upon the promises.” The puritan pastor Thomas Watson adds, “A Christian enters into meditation as a man enters into the hospital, that he may be healed. Meditation heals the soul of its deadness and earthliness.”
As we conclude this devotion, a warning is warranted. It is centered on the lethal blow to a healthy spiritual life of the Christian – busyness. Here it is – Let busyness control our lives and we will accomplish much but at too great a price. We forfeit a close walk with Jesus. Remember, the spiritual life is cultivated in solitude, not in a frenzied life of busyness.
PRAYER: Father, protect me from allowing, even imposing busyness in my life, and quenching Your Spirit.
QUOTE: Be busy and accomplish much but beware of the barrenness it will bring in your walk with Jesus.