What are you most keen to go for in life? What is motivating you? What are your priorities?

It is more important to know what God says than what the world says, feels, or reflects.

When Jesus Christ was birthed into this world, God was speaking. Centuries previously, men of God, called prophets, had been told what would happen. Now it was all coming true.

God spoke to a Jewish priest called Zechariah and another child, John, was born at around the same time as Jesus, and he can be overlooked and forgotten, but Jesus Christ spoke highly of him.

It is never nice to overlooked or almost forgotten.

God spoke to Mary and to Joseph, and to the most unlikely witnesses of all, shepherds.

God spoke to an older man, Simeon, and to a widow, Anna, and to a number of 'wise men'.

Each time God speaks it is significant.

The priests in Jerusalem did not seem to know what was going on. They certainly didn't pay much attention to what God was doing and saying.

It is what the Word says and not what the world says that matters. How important a part does the Word of God play in your life? Paying attention to what God has said can save you from years of heartache.

How many people have sat and said to me, "If only I had listened to what you said to me a few years ago?" That can be said in a prison cell, or it can be said by someone who has tragically returned to drinking alcohol and is again unable to control consumption.

"Alcohol is a tricky substance." I do not know how many folks I have said that to over these past years. Some can handle it. Many are unable to handle it, and it bites and devours and ultimately ruins them.

The advertisers do not show you that part. I once asked for permission to mention that at a graveside ceremony I was conducting. The family told me to go ahead, as they did not want to see anyone else destroyed by alcohol if it might possibly be prevented.

Jesus Christ sprang up like a root out of a dry ground. Talk about appearing in rough tough circumstances! It was a spiritual wilderness and yet from this old tree stump a man sees a single shoot appearing. He did not realise the full implication of what he was saying and revealing because when Jesus Christ came upon the scene there had never previously been anyone like him.

God came in a way He had never done before, and He lived among those who wanted to kill Him, even though He wanted to rescue them.

Jesus Christ focussed His mind on this one motivating factor. He came to do His Father's will, and as the Father sent Him, that was how He would send out His chosen men.

When you experience this level of love, joy, peace and purpose, you can thrive in the toughest situations.

God has also said a lot regarding the coming again of Jesus. We do not know exactly when that will be, and we never know when He will speak His final word.

Sandy Shaw

Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.

His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.

Sandy Shaw
sandyshaw63@yahoo.com