Thursday, December 8 – Luke 2:34-35

And Simeon blessed them and said to His mother Mary, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and as a sign to be opposed—and a sword will pierce your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

We use the phrase “wearing rose-colored glasses” to refer to someone that romanticizes a situation that may be much more difficult than they realize at the time. From an outside view, there are times when things will be more difficult than our naïve perspectives let us believe. For Mary, there was no time for rose-colored glasses. From the beginning, she was presented with the good and the difficult of the prophecy that would be fulfilled in her Son. Even in the blessing of Simeon, there was a reminder to Mary that the hurt her Son would go through would pierce her own heart as well.

There is no easy way out when following Christ. There is no charmed or pain-free way of following Him, seeking to grow to be like Him daily. We live in a broken world and will face pain and things we don’t expect. Like Mary, we receive the hard truth and the blessing of what will come when Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” When hard things come our way, we do not have to live in the bondage of bitterness and questions. God is straightforward with us about the struggle we would face, but He also promises that He will overcome and be with us at every moment. We are free to hope even as we face hardship or when things don’t go our way. Praise God, He has not given us hope based on our circumstances but hope that is anchored by Him, even as we face difficult times.

• How do you react when things don’t go your way?
• How does the fact that Jesus has overcome the world change how you look at the difficult things in your life?
• Pray and thank God that He has been straight-forward with us about hardship and steadfast in giving us a great hope to hold onto.