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“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

He doesn’t love me.  He’s not listening to me.  How could He allow all this mess in my life if He loved me?  It just stinks.

My heart went out to her.  I understood exactly how she felt.  I had uttered those same words myself at times in my own journey. She was sobbing uncontrollably at all the things in her life that was going wrong.  Adamant on the fact that God must not love her, otherwise He would fix all this mess in her life.

Surely God can’t be involved in it if there’s a mess involved right? Wrong.

When we think of the Christmas story, we conjure up a perfect nativity scene with Mary and Joseph looking at baby Jesus in wide-eyed awe.

But they were in a manger.  A manger is a trough used to feed animals.

If you’ve ever been in a barn with animals, you know two things. One is to be careful where you walk.  You never know what you might step in. Two, hold your nose because the smell of the animals (and their droppings) is not pleasant.

All of us who have experienced childbirth know that you want everything perfect for your baby’s arrival.  Mary had spent hours riding on a donkey in the cold weather to get to Bethlehem. Then she had to lay on straw surrounded by animals.  There most likely wasn’t fresh towels and hot water being brought to help her during her delivery.  She was left to birth this precious gift of hope in a stinky situation. Imagine how people must have treated her, a young woman, pregnant before marriage.  I wonder if she ever felt abandoned by God.  She had been told she was going to give birth to a Savior, yet here she was in an uncomfortable place.

There was mess in the manger friends.  Because mess is a sign of life, not a lack of God’s love.  The only time a manger is clean is when there are no animals in it. (Proverbs 14:4).

Our lives may be filled with troublesome circumstances, but God can still birth beautiful things from it. Just like in the manger, we need to be careful where we walk on this earth as Satan is on the prowl “seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

We have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus that we have an inheritance in Heaven that no mess on earth can destroy. (1 Peter 1:3-6)

When the aroma of this life makes us feel alone – we can remember another name for the birth of hope in that manger -Emmanuel, God is with us. (Mathew 1:23)

“Father help us to trust you with the mess in our lives.” 

For His Glory,

Laura Holmes www.ephraimministries.org
TRBC Women’s Life

“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the Church.”  Ephesians 4:15 (NLT)

At the moment of salvation—when you accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord—you are a new creation. You are transformed, redeemed, justified. At that moment, although we are given a new nature in Christ and the Holy Spirit starts living in us, we must still contend with our earth-bound flesh—our propensity to give in to sin. Until we go to Jesus or He comes for us, we live in a fallen body in a fallen world.

I say all that to say this: As a believer in Jesus (saved and born again), we are free from the penalty of sin and the wrath of God because Jesus paid it all for us. This is amazing grace! But from that point of salvation (whether it was a lightning-bolt moment or a slow realization), we must walk out our spiritual reality—becoming more and more like Jesus (called “sanctification”). This, my friend, is where Christianity gets hard.

See, if you are a believer, you have an awesome, miraculous testimony—a “I once was blind, but now I see” story. It doesn’t matter if you were five years old or 50. And hearing the testimony of others is always awe-inspiring. But this is just the beginning of our walk with Christ! It’s our “sanctification stories” that must be spoken among brothers and sisters! We must share our post-salvation trials, tribulations, and triumphs with one another. This is how we grow to become more and more like Christ (our underlying purpose in this life, per Romans 8:29).

All too often, men and women come to church buttoned up, every hair in place, and veneers of perfection intact…believing that because they’re “Christians” they must have it all together, no problems or challenges. But this isn’t what Jesus told His followers! He promised we’d have trouble in this world (John 16:33)! In order to grow in Christ—deepening our faith and love-in-action—we have to acknowledge that “walking out holiness” is a “Christian Family matter.” We are called to pray for, demonstrate love to, serve, and encourage one another. This is the unity we are meant to have in Christ (Colossians 2:2, 1 John 3:17-18).

But, friend, for this to happen, we can’t be pretenders. We have got to get real.

Our sanctification story—our Christian walk—is not a straight line. We step off path (sometimes in a painful fall), we take our eyes off Jesus or put them on self or others, and sometimes we actually start backtracking a bit. But we’re not alone in this! Other brothers and sisters have been through what we’ve been through! (No, really, they have! You are not the only one to struggle with whatever you’re struggling with!) But how can a brother or sister support you in love if you never reveal the truth about your walk?

When we get real, we can find encouragement. We can be iron to sharpen one another (Proverbs 27:17). We are strengthened (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) and love is forged. This is the real Christian life.

“Lord, You have given us the gift of unity. Allow me to share my walk with others and be an encouragement to those who open up their life to me.”

For His Glory

Julianne Winkler Smith
TRBC Women’s Life