December 18th 

Luke 1:74: ‘to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him’
 
Many of us will have learnt the wisdom of holding back in the build-up to Christmas.  We allow ourselves to enjoy mince pies throughout December, but we save the brandy butter for the day itself.  We allow ourselves an odd carol or Christmas song in the weeks of advent, but we save all the big tunes for the carol service and Christmas Day playlist.  We allow a few celebrations into the diary over the first few weeks of December, but try to keep a bit of space and rest so we’ve still got something in the tank for Christmas week itself.
 
Zechariah begins this verse by reminding us of what we’re saved from: the hand of our enemies, who as we considered two days ago aren’t people or nations but sin, Satan and death.  He also introduces the idea that we’re saved for something, just as Israel were rescued from slavery in Egypt to worship and serve God in the wilderness and the Promised Land.  We’re saved to serve God.  The Greek word Zechariah uses refers not just to the temple worship or sacrificial service a faithful Jew would be expected to engage in.  It’s a bigger word.  It’s more holistic.  It refers to devoting ourselves in total worship of God.  This is what God calls us to.  This is what he's saved us for: that we might serve and worship him with all of our hearts, minds, words, bodies and lives.  While we might wisely holding back from excess in the build-up to Christmas, there’s to be no holding back when it comes to our service of God.  Why not recommit yourself now to serving him this Christmas and beyond?

December 17th 

Luke 1:72-73: ‘to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham’
 
Often at Christmas it’s not the generous gifts or lavish meals, but the small things that are the most precious.  It’s the gift, card, visit or message that you didn’t expect to receive from someone you’ve not spoken to for a long time who you thought had forgotten you and your time together.  Knowing that you’ve been thought of can mean so much.
 
Zechariah here gives the outcome for God’s people of his salvation: his covenant is remembered.  The concept of ‘covenant’ is often described as referring to a legal contract, a formal agreement between two parties.  Comparisons are made to marriages, wills, adoption orders and mortgages.  All this can feel a little cold.  Tim Chester writes that we can all too easily think of God as “an insurance company paying out simply because a contract requires them to do so”.  But there’s a second outcome of God’s salvation that Zechariah identifies: God’s mercy is displayed.  Mercy is not so much here the motivation of God’s salvation as the outcome of it.  As God sends his saviour, his mercy is expressed, put into action and displayed for all to see. 
 
This combination of mercy and covenant, Chester writes, helps us see that God completes both the letter and the spirit of the law: “He says I forgive you (that’s the letter of the law), and he throws his arms around you in love (that’s the spirit of his law)”.  Because of the first Christmas, we know that we have been thought of by God, that we’ve been remembered by him and that he has looked upon us and loved us, remembering and acting upon his great and precious covenant promises to us.  Praise God for his mercy and his covenant-keeping! 

December 16th 

Luke 1:71: ‘salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us’
 
People sometimes talk of ‘saving someone’s skin’ when they’re helped to avoid or get out of a difficult situation.  To be ‘saved by the bell’ means to be rescued from a tricky state of affairs at the last moment.  Perhaps there’s a person, custom or item of food that you’re hoping you’ll be ‘saved’ from – enabled to avoid – this Christmas?
 
Salvation, as Zechariah picks up in this line of his prophecy, involves being saved from something, as well as being saved for something.  It means being rescued from something bad, dangerous or difficult.  For Zechariah it was obvious who God’s people, both individually and together, needed saving from: the mighty Roman Empire of whom first century Palestine was a vassal state.  Zechariah no doubt longed, as he spoke these words, to see the Messiah bring down Roman rule once and for all and set God’s nation free. 
 
We might struggle to know what to do with Zechariah and ancient Israel’s wish here, as we live in a free country and one that isn’t a ‘Christian’ state (and probably never truly has been).  Also, most of us wouldn’t consider ourselves to have personal enemies.  However, God’s saviour had not come to bring down Rome, as Zechariah hoped.  God had better plans.  He had bigger enemies to rescue his people from – enemies that are very much our enemies too and will, this side of Christ’s second coming, always be God’s people’s enemies: sin, Satan and death.  Give thanks to God now that you’ve been rescued from as well as for – that you’ve been set free from the awful, oppressive, vicious rule of sin, Satan and death.  Celebrate that sin, Satan and death have no hold, no claim on you now.

December 15th 

Luke 1:70: ‘(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago)’
 
For years our family have been debating whether there will be a ‘Frozen 3’ film (to follow the 2013 original and 2019’s ‘Frozen 2’).  The children have asserted with confidence that there will be, claiming to have seen trailers on Disney+, while we parents have been sceptical, writing this off as confused wishful thinking.  A recent online search has, however, revealed from reputable sources that there will be a ‘Frozen 3’.  It’s scheduled for release in November 2027.  It turns out that information about it has been available and plain to see online for a couple of years!
 
In the next line of his prophecy, Zechariah reminds his readers that information about God’s salvation has been available and plain to see in the pages of Scripture for many centuries.  Although what’s been revealed to Zechariah and Mary is astonishing, it’s old news.  Since humans first fell (see Genesis 3:15), God had promised through prophet after prophet that he will send salvation.  It is only the precise circumstances that would be a surprise. 
 
This should give us great comfort in a world in which we are never quite sure what’s around the corner – promotion or job loss, a clean bill of health or diagnosis and death, blessing or hardship.  This can also give us confidence as we read the Bible.  We can take confidence in the accounts of Jesus as we see him fulfil prophecy upon prophecy and we can take confidence in the Old Testament as we see how prescient and accurate its words were.  The information about Jesus is available and plain to see.  Pray that you might see, trust and rejoice in what’s plain to see.

December 14th 

Luke 1:69: ‘He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.’
 
What do you feel that you, your family or your house lack this Christmas?  Maybe your decorations are not a patch on what neighbours and friends have put up?  Maybe not many will be gathered around your table or the food you serve won’t be impressive?  Maybe a particular loved one or group of loved ones will be missing?  Maybe you have a bigger problem you’re dealing with in this season that Christmas will distract you from for a few days, but won’t solve? 
 
Where Mary started her song personally, reflecting on God’s actions towards her as an individual, Zechariah starts big.  He brings to mind the whole house of David – the descendants of the  ancient Israelite king and the 12 tribes he ruled over, the people of God in their entirety – as he begins his song.  What did the house of David lack?  It lacked a saviour.  God’s people were lost, stuck in their sin and enslaved to the lords of this world.  They were without a saviour and they desperately needed one.  1000 years later, in Jesus, God has now provided them with one, Zechariah realises.  He has given his struggling people exactly what they needed and all that they truly needed despite whatever else they may have felt that they lacked.
 
Know that whatever you lack in reality or as you perceive it this Christmas, God has given you, exactly what you need: his son, our saviour, Jesus.  Praise God for the gift of Jesus.  Rejoice that with him as our shepherd, we lack nothing (Psalm 23:1). 

December 13th 

Luke 1:68: ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.’
 
Whose visit are you most looking forward to this Christmas?  Or who are you looking forward to visiting?  Have you ever had or been a surprise visitor?  Christmas can provide a wonderful opportunity to welcome in loved ones or get in our car or on a train or plane and pay a visit to our nearest and dearest.
 
As we shift, today, from meditating upon Mary’s song to exploring Zechariah’s, we learn that God has visited us.  Zechariah praises God for having “come to” his people.  Simple words, yet profound.  God has paid his people a visit.  He has filled his car with petrol, entered our address into his SatNav and made the long drive to our neck of the woods.  So many religions and worldviews are based upon the idea of human beings getting to or finding God or reaching some higher plane of existence.  If we meditate enough, if we’re good enough, if we work hard enough, if we learn enough, if we search in the right places, we might be able to reach up to God.  Think of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11.  But this is not how the God of the Bible works.  He has not demanded that we come and find him.  He has come to us.  He has visited us.  He has knocked on the door and asked to come in.  Pray that he will receive a warm and hospitable welcome in our hearts this season.

December 12th 

Luke 1:55: ‘to Abraham and his descendants for ever, just as he promised our ancestors.’
 
As we count down the days to Christmas, perhaps you’re counting down the days to a promise that you’re hoping will be fulfilled?  You’ve been promised a particular present?  A special trip out?  A break from the kids?  A helping hand in the kitchen?  A visit from your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews or a friend?  As Christmas draws closer, your hope, anticipation and excitement increase.
 
When Mary sung this song, it had been over 400 years since God had clearly intervened in Israel’s  history – bringing a remnant of them back, under Ezra and Nehemiah, from their exile in Persia, and speaking to them through the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.  But Mary takes the story much further back.  She goes back to the days of Abraham, probably around 2000 years before her own time.  It’s since then that we’ve been waiting, she sings, and it’s the promises God made then to Abraham that have now been fulfilled.  Israel’s wait is finally over.  God has done exactly as he promised he would.  They just had to wait 2000 years to see it.
 
We’re waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled too.  We’re waiting for Jesus to return.  We’ve waited 2000 years already, but we can be as certain as Mary was as she realised he was working it all out in her own womb that God will keep his promise and that our wait will one day be over.  Pray that you will wait well, not just to celebrate the first coming of Christ, but to welcome in the second.

December 11th 

Luke 1:54: ‘remembering to be merciful’
 
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Charles Dickens wrote as he opened his novel 'A Tale of Two Cities'.  Those words could sum up Christmas.  As we look ahead to more time in close proximity with our immediate and extended families than is usual, we look forward to joyful chaos and the formation of precious memories, but we also anticipate frictions and perhaps some fallings out.
 
We live in a culture that is quick to be offended and slow to admit fault.  As we consider the topic of mercy we usually put ourselves in the position of needing to show it: we’ve been wronged and we need God’s help to forgive.  Mary spins the dial in the opposite direction.  Mary doesn’t thank God for helping her to show mercy to those who have wronged her.  She rejoices in the mercy that God has shown her and his people.
 
For God has not been motivated to display his mighty power by his people’s goodness, prayerfulness, perseverance, holiness or even suffering.  It is his mercy that has moved him to act.  Although this may at first sound demeaning that God’s actions aren’t in response to our goodness, it is in fact a great relief, because if we haven’t earned God’s favour by what we’ve done, then surely nothing we do can make us lose it.  We do not climb our man-made ladders to heaven, hoping not to lose our footing.  God throws his rescue rope down, grabs hold of us and pulls us up.  God has shown us mercy.  Pray that we might remember this, and that we might extend his mercy to each other.

December 10th 

Luke 1:54: ‘He has helped his servant Israel’
 
What help will you need at Christmas time?  Perhaps it’s help getting the decorations out of the attic, a lift to or from your relatives’ in the cold and dark, or someone to look after the kids while you cook?  The concept of ‘help’ can be under-rated.  The Collins online dictionary defines ‘help’ like this: ‘if you help someone, you make it easier for them to do something’.  Examples include assisting someone in raising money, cooking a meal or sourcing medication.  While those are all valuable forms of help, they hardly compare to what lies behind Mary’s statement that God has ‘helped’ his people.
 
Mary’s song zooms in again here.  Having considered what will be the case for all who fear the Lord, she now turns to God’s work for his people Israel.  What has God done?  He has helped them.  But he hasn’t merely helped them along – making things easier for them, as Collins would have it.  He has done it all for them.  He has given them things they did not even ask for.  He has taken away sins they could not have atoned for.  He has removed insurmountable obstacles and has blessed them beyond their wildest imagination.  His help is “not a merely kindly feeling or disposition,” William Hendriksen writes in his commentary on Luke, “but it is tender love in action, action that really helps … and saves!”.  God has helped and will help his people even more, Mary realises, through the child she will bear.  God is his people’s helper.  He is your helper.  Praise him now and seek his help with whatever you’re facing today.
 

December 9th 

Luke 1:53: ‘He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.’
 
Commenting on these verses, Tim Chesters asks: Have you ever watched a TV drama in which the culprit is discovered and arrested while there are still two episodes to go?  The chances are that there are twists still to come.  The guilty person has not yet been found.
 
Mary speaks here as if these actions of God are past tense: things that God has already done.  While to a degree we know that to be true, we look around at the world and see greedy people still filling themselves with more than they need while the hungry starve.  Where is this mercy, justice and mighty power of God’s of which Mary speaks?
 
There are two answers to this question.  The first is to understand the poetry of Mary’s song.  There will be many a rich person in heaven just as many a poor person will be excluded.  What determines our entry is not the amount on our plate now but our attitude to the Lord Jesus.  Will we fear him?  The second is to realise that the story isn’t yet over.  There are twists still to come.  The true fulfilment of what Mary sings of lies ahead.  It lies on the day when Christ comes again.  Praise God that this great reversal has begun and pray that our Lord Jesus will come again soon and finish the job. 

December 8th 

Luke 1:52: ‘He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.’
 
Everyone loves a rags to riches Christmas pantomime.  Think of Dick Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella.  We love to hear of the humble, down on their luck, unfairly overlooked hero who throws off their shackles and finds their way to freedom and fortune.  Maybe you tell your own life story as a rags to riches story?
 
The gospel, Mary reveals, is a rags to riches story.  It’s the ultimate rags to riches story.  We see here the flip side of what we read yesterday.  Not only does God’s mighty arm bring down the powerful and arrogant, but it lifts up the humble and lowly.  And God doesn’t need a good wind behind him, the sprinkling of fairy dust or the wave of a magic wand; he brings about this reversal through his own powerful arm.  Barely lifting a finger, he reorders the world.  With a flick of his hand empires rise and are crushed.  Think of callous Pharaoh deprived of his slave empire as God’s people walked free, the land of milk and honey given to the feeble Israelites as God evicted the evil through and through Canaanites, exiled Daniel and his chums lifted to the highest seats with Babylonian and Persian kings dethroned before them, the carpenter from Nazareth killed like a criminal but raised out of his grave.  Think of all these things and look ahead and trust that God will complete his rags to riches story.  Every ruler will bow at his throne and his humble people will be given crowns.  Praise God for his topsy-turvy work.  Pray that he might keep you humble.

December 7th 

Luke 1:51: ‘He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.’
 
It’s not hard to have a ‘personal’ faith.  Secular society allows us a personal faith.  No-one takes offence at Christians quietly in their own homes putting the ‘Christ’ back into ‘Xmas’.  As the Girl Guiding promise now says: 'I promise that I will do my best to think about my beliefs’ (italics added).  A personal faith is all well and good, our culture says, if it helps us and as long as we don’t let it follow us out our front door.
 
With Mary’s song so far we could be in the realm merely of personal faith.  Mary has reflected on the Lord’s actions to her and her request that all who fear him receive mercy could be interpreted as a request for God’s personal care in their private lives.  But with v51 we learn that although God’s mercy is not less than personal, it is far more.  The Lord expresses his mercy through his powerful work in the world.  Our Lord has a mighty arm which he uses it to scatter the proud and arrogant, just as he did at Babel and for his people as they marched around Jericho with Joshua and under Gideon faced the Mideanite army.  We might not naturally use ‘mercy’ and ‘power’ in the same sentence.  But when we see how full of wickedness our world is and how evil that wickedness is, we realise that God must move with power if he is to bring mercy to his people.  Give thanks that our faith is not merely in a personal God who works in our personal lives, but in a powerful God who acts in history. 

December 6th 

Luke 1:50: ‘His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.’
 
Who has the power to make your Christmas either very good or difficult?  An aging parent or grown child whose tune you still dance to?  A boss who could open doors or slam their shut?  A friend you hope you can still count on?  The gatekeeper of a social group you long to be part of?  Who do you not just value, respect or admire, but fear?
 
We might think that we shouldn’t fear God.  The apostles call us God’s children.  Jesus called his disciples friends.  Isaiah described God as a shepherd carrying his lambs in his arms.  Through the Psalms God invites us to pour out our hearts to him.  What place has fear amongst intimacy, love and honesty?  Yet we must not forget that God is also king – the Mighty One and creator.  He is far above and beyond us.  He holds our lives and world in the palm of his hand.  There is no place for complacency, overfamiliarity or irreverence with God.  Even as he invites us into his tender embrace, we must treat him as holy.
 
But wonderfully as we come to him fearing him, we learn that he is merciful not furious.  Here begins one of the key themes of Mary’s song: God’s mercy is for whoever fears him.  Pray that you and your loved ones might fear the Lord so that you and they might better know and enjoy his mercy. 

December 5th 

Luke 1:48-49: ‘From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is his name.’
 
Elon Musk topped the Forbes list of billionaires this year.  Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Time magazine’s person of the year looks like it will go to Pope Leo XIV or Donald Trump.  David Beckham finally got a knighthood.  These are some of the people our generation call blessed.
 
But there’s another person our generation calls blessed: Mary.  Whatever people may think of Jesus, Paul or ‘the God of the Old Testament’, it is rare to hear Mary criticised.  Around the nation children act out her story in nativity plays and sing lullabies inspired by her like ‘Silent Night’.  Across the globe people admire artwork of her in revered galleries and dance to songs about her by Boney M, Rogers and Judd and even the Beatles.  What Mary prophesied here has come true.  Throughout history she has been known as blessed.
 
But look what Mary does with this knowledge that she is blessed.  She turns it to God!  She sings not about herself and her good fortune, but about his identity, actions and holiness.  She praises her powerful God.  Though people will call her blessed, Mary knows that she is only a signpost.  Pray that as we reflect on her extraordinary story and example that she might point us to the one who is so holy that ‘Holy’ might as well be his first name.

December 4th 

Luke 1:48: ‘for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant'
 
Maybe you’re not particularly looking forward to Christmas?  Perhaps Christmas makes more pronounced how you feel about yourself the rest of the year – insignificant, overlooked and lowly.  You don’t have much in earthly terms to celebrate or many people to celebrate with.  Christmas is a painful reminder of your ‘humble state’ in the world’s eyes.
 
Mary here says why she praises God.  She isn’t commending herself for being humble in character (that would be ironic!).  Instead, she’s acknowledging that she’s humble in circumstances.  She’s not well-born, well-educated, well-off or well-known.  Her CV was short.  Her dowry was small.  Her social media followers would have been few.  Yet God has looked upon her.  He has noticed her.  He has spotted a woman who others would not have seen or would have kept hidden away.  Just like he did with kicked out Hagar, unfavoured first wife Leah, ‘cursed’ widow Naomi and her foreign widow daughter-in-law Ruth and childless Hannah, God spotted Mary.  In fact, he bestowed upon her the most extraordinary blessing.  She is the one woman in all human history who carried his son.
 
If you ever feel insignificant, overlooked and lowly, know that God sees you.  He notices you.  He is mindful of you, not despite but in your humble condition, just as he was for Mary.  Like Mary, feel your worth in his eyes and then don’t look inside but look up and praise him.

December 3rd 

Luke 1:47: ‘and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour’
 
Whether it’s the sparkling opening notes of Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Mariah Carey or Wham, the aroma of cinnamon and cloves as the mulled wine brews or the mince pies bake, or the first sight of lights going up in our neighbours’ windows, there are certain things at this time of year that hit our senses and fill us with joy.  Our hearts can’t help but leap as we soak them up.  Even the most Scrooge-like among us rejoice.
 
Where the action of v46 feels deliberate – Mary chose to make God’s name great; the action in this parallel verse feels more impulsive – Mary’s spirit rejoices in God.  You get the sense that in this moment she couldn’t have done anything but rejoice.  Her spirit was overcome and overwhelmed by her Lord.  Her soul was caught up in ecstasy and delight in God her saviour. 
 
What Mary understood of how this child inside her would become her saviour we do not know.  But thanks to the rest of the Bible, we do know what it means that he is our saviour.  What a great cause for joy we have even on cold, dark December mornings, weary with colds and coughs, and with so much still to do in the days and weeks ahead of us.  Pray that God might flood your heart today with circumstance-defying joy in Jesus your saviour. 

December 2nd 

Luke 1:46: ‘My soul glorifies the Lord’
 
How was last Christmas for you?  Maybe you nailed the dinner?  Maybe you bought the perfect presents?  Maybe you got the right balance between seeing different parts of the family and getting some rest?  Maybe you deserve a pat on the back?  …Or maybe last year didn’t quite work, but you’ve got ideas for how to do it better this year?
 
While Mary’s opening words feel almost too obvious to comment upon, if you’re anything like me, the words that spill out of our hearts are far more often: “My soul glorifies myself”.  We congratulate ourselves for all that we have achieved this season.
 
Mary begins her song by making great the Lord.  (The Greek word translated ‘glorify’ means make great, praise or extol).  Mary ruminates not on how godly and faithful or how blessed and fortunate she is, but on how great God is.  With all of her psyche – with all that is within her – Mary lifts up his name.  She gives him pride of place and number one position, putting him on a pedestal.  Mary takes her hat off to the Lord.  She hands it to him.  Let’s pray that we might make the Lord’s name great this Christmas, and not just in the words we read, say and sing, but with all of our souls and psyches.  He is worthy!

Luke 1:46: And Mary said…

 

We all know what it’s like to switch off when someone’s talking to us.  Whether it’s a “when I was young” monologue from a family member, an all-too-familiar anecdote from a colleague or neighbour, or yet another reminder from our boss of our organisation’s ‘values’, we all know what it’s like to shift into daydream mode when someone is speaking to us. 
 
Luke interrupts his story to tell us what Mary said as she processed all that she had heard from Elizabeth and the angel.  While many of us treasure her words, perhaps some of us are tempted to switch off?  We know the gist.  Can’t we skip ahead to the next  bit of the story in v56?
 
Tim Chester writes in his new devotional book on these songs that Luke uses them to “catch us up” on the Bible story so far.  Where Matthew and Mark both use Old Testament quotations, Matthew adds a family tree and John pens a wonderful, dense theological poem, Luke records Mary and Zechariah’s songs to show us how the events of Luke 1 and 2 fit into God’s big story.  Luke uses songs because he “wants to make our hearts sing,” Chester writes.  Luke wants us to pick up the tunes and join in.  So don’t skip these songs this advent. Treasure them and pray that they might be your song as you count down to Christmas.