What Are Your Expectations for Christmas?

Focus passage: Luke 1:5-24

If you were asked to list your expectations for the Christmas season, what would they be? Are you hoping for a great present under the tree? Maybe you are looking forward to time with family like I am at Christmas and New Year’s Day. What are your expectations for worship? Do you expect to gain an insight in worship or have a warm feeling from serving someone in Christ? Do you expect to have an encounter with God that changes your faith or are you just hoping to make to January with as little damage as possible. Realize that when you don’t expect anything, nothing is often what you get. The holiday will pass by and be as empty as ever. Sometimes God will still give you a special gift and it will be the shock of your life. That is the story of a man named Zachariah. He had the day of his life and didn’t get to enjoy it because of his low expectations.

He didn’t expect to meet God v.9 Incense was burned twice a day in the holy place of God’s temple. Because there were so many priests, many think that a priest probably got to do that only a few times in his life. Zechariah has been chosen for that duty and it should have been the day of his life working only feet from the Holy of Holies. Somehow, he never expects to see the Lord in that Holy Place and is terrified when an angel speaks to him. He is just going through the motions of the task. It is easy to just go through the motions with no expectation that God will be present. Maybe we need to start expecting God to be at church in worship or at the soup kitchen when we serve Him. This is His season. If we look for God in those opportunities, maybe we will be touched.

We don’t believe God will answer our prayers v.13 Like Abraham and Sarah in the Old Testament, Zachariah and his wife were old and had prayed for a child. I picture Zachariah halfheartedly praying for a child there at the altar of incense. It was the desire of his life and the one big empty hole that God had never filled. When God answers his prayer, he is more than a little surprised. He struggles to believe God just like Sarah does in the book of Genesis. He wasn’t looking for an answer. What are you praying for this holiday? We need to live by faith expecting that the Lord is going to give us His answer in the right time. Expect miracles. Nothing is impossible for God.

We don’t want to tell others without assurances v.18 The answer came and it was just what he wanted, yet he wants assurances. Maybe he was afraid to tell his wife. Maybe he was afraid to tell the crowd what was taking so long on this simple task. His doubt was understandable, but let’s face it - he is talking to an angel. This is someone who should be believed. When that moment comes that you have been wanting this Christmas, don’t second guess it. Savor it and appreciate it. Thank the Lord for the insight in His word, the warm feeling you got from serving or the miracle of seeing someone you were not expecting this holiday. Thank the Lord and make sure that everyone knows what God has done. Let them share in the joy that you received. Make their Christmas special and filled with wonder.

So what do you want from the Lord this Christmas? Do you want an insight from a hymn, a sermon or a time of reading the Bible? God is eager to speak to you and wants to build your faith this season so that you understand why the child came. Do you want a special feeling of joy that comes because you gave yourself as you sat with someone who is struggling or had a special time to reach the needs of someone else? God blesses our times of giving and helps us receive more than we give when we give in His name. Christmas is not a time just to get through. It is a time to open up our hearts and receive from the Lord our deepest needs. He is called Immanuel, God with us, for a reason. When you know what you want, pray for it and look for opportunities where God can satisfy your needs. Zachariah almost missed the greatest day of His life. Don’t let that happen to you. Pray for something special and try to be in a place that God might make that happen. God answers prayer and fills our hearts with wonder at Christmas.