Make Room for the Promise!

BY REV. DORAL PULLEY

Luke 2:1-7

God has promised each of us something. Your promise may not be mine and my promise may not be yours but all of us are children of God and we each have a promise. The question is not whether nor not God will keep his promise. God is a promise-keeper.  The question is when God fulfills his promise in our lives, will we have room to receive the promise.

The birth of Jesus represents the fulfillment of God’s promise to the Hebrew people. For hundreds, even thousands of years, they were promised a savior.  The prophets gave them signs so that they would be able to identify the promise when it manifested.  One sign is that he would be a descendent of David (Isaiah 11:10).  Another sign is that “a virgin would conceive and bring forth a son (Isaiah 7:14).  Despite all the prophetic indicators, when it was time for Jesus to be born, “there was no room for them in the inn (Luke 2:7).”

Many of us are like the innkeeper or hotel manager in the Christmas story.  The promise of God is knocking on our door looking to take residence and we have no room.  Often our lives are filled with so many other things that we have no vacancies for what God has promised us.  Our minds can be so busy with the busyness of this world that we don’t have time to even think about the promises that God has made to us.  Sometimes our hearts are so filled with hurts, pains and disappointment that we don’t have space for the promise.

As we close 2016 and move into 2017, it’s time for us to make room for the promise. What has God promised you?