Finding your supporting role in God’s story is simple. The key is obedience. When we look at the story of the Bible, and when we look at how the birth of Jesus came about in this Christmas season, we begin to see that it was all a result of obedience.
The scriptures are full of people who when God says “go”, they go. Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father was like this. He had a dream to stay with Mary and marry her, so he did. After Jesus’ birth he had another dream to flee to Egypt until further notice to avoid Herod’s decree that would have put his son in danger.
Going back a few thousand years, and many generations we find Abraham obeying in a similar way. In Genesis 12 God tells Abraham to leave his possessions, take his family and go to the land God will show him. And Abraham, much like Joseph, obeys.
But we must ask the question, what if Joseph had not fled to Egypt? What is Abraham had not traveled in search of the Land of Canaan? Would this mean that Jesus would have been killed as an infant by Herod’s army? Or maybe it means that Jesus never would have been born at all, simply because one ancestor did not follow through? I don’t think so.
Obedience or no obedience, God is going to accomplish His powerful will for the world. Obedience in a choice that we make. When we choose to obey, we are choosing to claim our place in God’s story for the world, we choose to become a part of it. If we choose not to be a part of it, God can easily cast someone else in our role. But when we do choose to obey, we step into who we are called to be, and we step closer to God.
-jon
The scriptures are full of people who when God says “go”, they go. Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father was like this. He had a dream to stay with Mary and marry her, so he did. After Jesus’ birth he had another dream to flee to Egypt until further notice to avoid Herod’s decree that would have put his son in danger.
Going back a few thousand years, and many generations we find Abraham obeying in a similar way. In Genesis 12 God tells Abraham to leave his possessions, take his family and go to the land God will show him. And Abraham, much like Joseph, obeys.
But we must ask the question, what if Joseph had not fled to Egypt? What is Abraham had not traveled in search of the Land of Canaan? Would this mean that Jesus would have been killed as an infant by Herod’s army? Or maybe it means that Jesus never would have been born at all, simply because one ancestor did not follow through? I don’t think so.
Obedience or no obedience, God is going to accomplish His powerful will for the world. Obedience in a choice that we make. When we choose to obey, we are choosing to claim our place in God’s story for the world, we choose to become a part of it. If we choose not to be a part of it, God can easily cast someone else in our role. But when we do choose to obey, we step into who we are called to be, and we step closer to God.
-jon
