Christmas HOPE - Day 12

Acts 2:26-"No wonder my heart is glad, and my tongue shouts his praises! My body rests in hope."

Try this exercise with me if you would. Grab a pen and paper and on the paper draw a big heart. Inside the heart draw a chair. Let's leave that now for just a minute and come back to it.

When I personally see this verse so much stands up like a pop up book. Yes, "No wonder my heart is glad!" Every day I am so grateful. Aren't you grateful for what you have? Each day is such a big deal! And it would be really easy to take on a big negative spirit of what goes on out there in the world, but there's so much good. God is doing so much right now! I'm hearing stories all the time of what God did for someone and I get ringside seats to watching life change happen. So yah, no wonder my hearts glad. God's done some awesome, awesome work! Further this passage says 'and my tongue shouts his praises'. Reading what you just read above, think about that. When God has blessed us so much how can we not be running around like chickens with our heads cut off shouting it from the rooftops? God is that good!

But then the verse closes by saying, "My body rests in hope." Do you have hope this Christmas? What are some of those things you hope for? Go back to the heart illustration above. On the chair inside the heart things we hope for often end up there. We put a hope for a big house on the chair, better job on the chair, large tax refund on the chair - we hope. And here is where the rubber meets the road....simply put the cross of Christ on that chair. What Luke is saying in this verse is that he is overjoyed because Christ is the center of his life and resides in his heart. Therefore, he's not anxious or worried - he's at rest, all the time. He lives life at rest, all the time. All Luke's hopes are fulfilled (not just material hopes) because he's got Jesus in his heart.

I'd like to offer some hope for you today. Erase everything that you let sit on that chair inside your heart. Just erase it. God knows your needs and the desires of your heart. Put Christ on that chair which ultimately is His throne. Let him sit there and you get: rest, hope, gladness, and with that I guarantee you're going to want to shout it from the rooftops this Christmas!