Luke 2:16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

After the shepherds heard the angel pronounce the coming of their Savior, they came with haste, a sense of urgency, to meet the Christ child. I believe there was something within their lives that created that sense of urgency. They couldn’t wait to come to Christ.

How many times have you heard the offer of salvation thru faith in Christ and put off accepting Him into your heart? Is it that you do not feel a sense of urgency? Do you believe that you are safe? Do you not believe in the hereafter? Do you think this life is all there is that exists?

If you believe that the offer of salvation is only about eternal life then you miss the larger point. Those shepherds wanted a salvation from the current life they lived, not an eternal life. Their view of a savior was one of deliverance from oppression, pain, and rulers who were cruel and violent.

Salvation begins at the very moment of acceptance by faith of Christ as Lord of your life. Your new like begins in that very moment and does not put itself off until you die.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

It is not that the world changes and becomes new, it is that you change and become new. Perhaps a lack of urgency in that area is because you love your life and see no need to give it up.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Open your eyes and see the world for what it really is these days and tell me you do not hope for more than that.

1 Peter 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Here as Christmas draws close I do not find myself in a festive state of mind. It is difficult to focus on a season of celebration while a loved one suffer. Rather than looking to scriptures about joy, celebration and this advent we are about to remember, I find myself search for scriptures about suffering.

As I read about the sufferings of John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Promise, I found his scripture of comfort. That was his place of comfort, not mine. Yet seeing that he could find comfort in this scripture when his affliction was so much more than my own gave me pause to ask why.

The keeping of his soul acknowledges that he was already in a good place that he was not willing to surrender to his circumstances. It is easy to get down and surrender to pain, whether physical or emotional. The soul, the mind, will and emotions, has no strength in itself to stand except the character upon which God has built up in you by experience. This commitment to God in these times is a test of character, not faith.

Suffering seems like a lonely place, but it is not. Letting go and surrendering to it is not a lack of faith but a lack of character. All we have to do to remember that is acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the faithful one and since He abides in me, the only thing that binds my actions to my faith in these times is my character.

Job 10:15-16 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction; For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.