Unfiltered Shepherds

While reading one of the Advent devotionals through the YouVersion Bible app this morning, I came across this commentary…

Luke 2 says that when the angels told the shepherds the Good News about Jesus’ birth, they “hurried off” to find Him. Instead of waiting around and letting doubt creep in, they responded immediately. This took great faith! Certainly, they wanted to meet Jesus, but they also had earthly concerns. What would they do with their flock? Should they tell their families first? Were they dressed appropriately? Were simple shepherds really worthy of meeting the King of Kings? They didn’t let any of the questions we might have asked in the same situation keep them from quickly responding to God.

I immediately thought, what a great example of living unfiltered for God! It is this kind of behavior that I have been trying to practice myself and encourage in this space for a while now. How amazing was it that these shepherds heeded the call, no questions asked? It makes me wonder, what if they hadn’t? How would the story have been different? What would the narrative have been then? Of course, we probably would never have heard of these shepherds in the first place.

So what does the passage of scripture say exactly? Well, it starts by saying that the Shepherds were “terrified”! Until they weren’t… And that was because the Angel said to them, “Do not be Afraid.” (Just a quick aside – how many times are we told in the Bible to not be afraid? Admittedly I haven’t counted myself, but I have learned that it mentions it in some form 365 times. Yes, that’s once for each day of the year. How cool is our God?!)

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” (Luke 2:8-15)

The devotional later goes on to say…

“When you hear a specific word from Him, trust His direction. He will equip you to do what He’s asked you to do. All you need to do is respond. Stir your faith today and decide in advance that you’ll move when God’s says to move, no matter what!”

That last part is key – deciding in advance, that you’ll do what God says to do… No. Matter. What. These Christmas shepherds provide us with an excellent model.

Like everything else, it’s a process. But, little by little, with the help of the Holy Spirit encouraging us and building our faith… and our trust… we can spend less time fearing and in doubt and more time trusting and advancing His Kingdom in the process!

I want to thank Church of the Highlands for the devotional, and the quotes shared above, as well as the image.