We live in a busy world. While it is good to be busy with good things, there is such a thing as being too busy for your own good. Our culture often sends the message that your worth is tied to your productivity, so we constantly try to multitask as we move from one overcommitment to the next. This is not to say that hard work is bad. A Christian ethic of work teaches us to work hard, be diligent, and faithfully look after our responsibilities in life. But beyond our responsibilities, sometimes we’re just too busy. When we look at the life of Jesus, we discover a litmus test that you can apply to your life to determine if you are too busy: if you are too busy to pray, you are too busy.

Jesus was clearly a busy man. His public ministry entailed long journeys, hours of teaching, and endless crowds pressing in on him, hoping to be healed. Led by his compassion for the people who were “like sheep without a shepherd” he gave sacrificially of his time and energy for the well-being of others. But in the middle of such a busy ministry, Jesus still made time for prayer. And he didn’t just make time for prayer once in a while, when things were slow; he made a practice of praying because he knew how important it was to stay close to the Father and to nurture his relationship with his Father while in his ministry on the earth. In Luke 5:15–16 we read, “But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” Luke indicates that Jesus’ practice of withdrawing to remote places for prayer was not a sporadic occurrence, but a regular habit of his.

If Jesus was as busy as he was and yet still prioritized time to spend in prayer with the Father, surely we can do the same. Let’s follow in Jesus’ footsteps and be busy with good things, but let’s not forget to protect time for praying to God. If Jesus needed an active personal devotional life, how much more so do we? How can we expect to do the will of God in our lives if we are not spending time regularly with God, both hearing from him through his word, and speaking to him in prayer? Jesus’ example shows us the importance of having time to be alone with God, even in the middle of busy seasons of life. Undoubtedly, this practice of regular time with the Father provided the fuel he needed to keep going with his ministry. So what about you? Are you busy? There’s nothing wrong with being busy with good things. But are you too busy? Do you ever have moments alone, somewhere quiet, when you can pray undistracted? Remember, if you’re too busy to pray, you’re too busy.

“No pain, no gain.” “Sore today, stronger tomorrow.” “The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.” “Hard choices, easy life; easy choices, hard life.” These sayings are often repeated by highly motivated leaders, soldiers, and athletes to remind themselves that those who want great results in a career, on a mission, or on the ball field have to give everything in their training and preparation. These sayings and others like them remind us of the general truth that things worth doing are never easy. Understood in its right context, the same is true of our walk with the Lord. In fact, an episode from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry shows us that it is only those who deny self and submit to the plan of God who will experience the power of God at work in their lives. If you want God to powerfully work in you and if you want to be used by God in his kingdom, it is going to require an unremitting commitment to follow the will of God, come what may.

Jesus modeled this commitment during his temptations in the wilderness after his baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended on him. Luke writes, “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1–2). After Jesus withstood the onslaught of temptations at the merciless hands of the tempter, Luke records that “…Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country” (Luke 4:14). Jesus was full of the Spirit before the temptations, but after successfully withstanding that season of vicious temptation without ever sinning once, he came back to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. Just as the struggle that comes with lifting weights strengthens our muscles, in the same way, Jesus’ unyielding struggle against temptation filled him with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

We are to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18) to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25) and to be led by the Spirit (Rom. 8:14), but these things cannot happen if we stubbornly cling to our own selfish will. If you feel like you lack spiritual power to face and overcome temptation, ask whether you are surrendering to the Lord or whether you are trying to hold onto some of your own will. Pray for strength to fully surrender to the Lord’s will. But if you dare pray this prayer, be ready, because the more we become like Jesus, the more we can expect to be tempted, and the more subtle the temptations may become. Remember, Satan doesn’t need to bother tempting those who are not serious about their Christian life. He reserves his attacks for those who are submitting to the Lord, for they are a great threat to his diabolical kingdom. 

Do you know the names of your grandparents’ parents? As I’m writing this, I can only think of the name of one of my eight great-grandparents. It’s a little sad to me that I don’t even know the names of most of the eight people in the world who probably had the most influence on the four people in the world who probably had the most influence on the man and woman who gave me life. But I’m interested in learning more about my ancestry and hope to preserve that information for my children and their children some day. Recent advancements in genetic testing have increased popular interest in ancestry and can yield a wealth of information about one’s ancestors. Before all our modern genetic testing and date retrieval systems, however, people recorded genealogies on paper. The Bible records many genealogies, and although they can be filled with hard-to-pronounce Semitic names, they are important components of the Biblical narratives in which they are embedded.

We find one of the genealogies in Luke 3:23–38. Like the one given in Matthew 1, this is a genealogy of Jesus, but there are several key differences. For one thing, Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus begins with Abraham and lists the descendants down to Jesus. Luke goes in the reverse order, beginning with Jesus and going all the way back to Adam, not just as far back as Abraham. Additionally, Matthew and Luke follow different branches of the family tree in the generations after King David. They also differ in their placement of the genealogy within their gospels: Matthew places the genealogy at the very beginning of his gospel, identifying who Jesus is before detailing his birth. Luke, on the other hand, places the genealogy in between Jesus’ baptism and his temptation in the wilderness, which we know happened back to back. Why interrupt the narrative to put the genealogy of Jesus in such a seemingly random place in the gospel?

Upon closer examination, Luke’s placement of the genealogy of Jesus is anything but random. He has placed the genealogy here to highlight an important truth about Jesus. Squashed in between the baptism of Jesus and his temptations (two events that share a common theme about Jesus’ identity as the Son of God), Luke uses the genealogy to point us to the fact that Jesus—the true Son of God—will succeed where Adam—the first son of God—failed. Luke writes, “…and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’ Jesus… was… the son of Adam, the son of God” (Luke 3:23, 38). This beloved Son of God then marched into the wilderness where he faced the fiercest onslaught of temptations that the devil could muster. Jesus came to reverse the curse brought about through the sin of Adam, and he succeeded where Adam failed. He’s the son of Adam, he’s the son of God, he’s our Savior!

Of the four gospels, Luke’s gospel famously has the longest narrative about the birth and infancy of Jesus. Mark and John do not mention Jesus’ birth and infancy, and Matthew’s gospel only contains about 800 words detailing the birth of Jesus while Luke has about 1400 words documenting the same. Many of the memorable elements of the birth of Jesus have been popularized in Christmas nativities and plays—the Gloria of the angels sung to the shepherds in the field, the star guiding the magi to Bethlehem, the magi’s three gifts, and the babe lying in a manger. But I’ve never yet seen a Christmas play that included the prophecy by Simeon when the infant Jesus was brought to the temple for purification. Despite its relative obscurity, this encounter between an old man and the six week old baby Jesus is one of the most fascinating events in the birth narrative of Jesus.

When Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to the temple for his purification, Luke tells us that “…there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:25–26). This is nothing short of astonishing! The Jews had been awaiting the arrival of the Messiah for generations, and of all the people alive at the time this one man received a revelation that within his lifetime he would see the Messiah!

Luke continues the story: “And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel’” (Luke 2:27–32). Speaking to God, Simeon rightly says that Jesus is “your salvation”—not salvation for God, but salvation provided by God for sinners. Furthermore, Jesus is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.” This salvation through Jesus is open to all people, both Jews and Gentiles. Simeon responded in worship and praise to God for the blessing of seeing the baby Jesus who would accomplish this great salvation offered to all people. We might think that Simeon’s was the greater blessing, since he got to see Jesus in person, but in fact ours is the greater blessing, because we live after Christ and have seen more of the unfolding plan of God. By faith, our eyes have seen God’s salvation too. Will we, like Simeon, lift our voice and bless God for the salvation he has given us?

In Luke 1 we read about the responses by two individuals who each received a revelation from an angel. The similarities—and differences—are intriguing. Several months apart, Zechariah the priest and his wife’s relative Mary each experienced a once-in-a-life-time experience: a visit from the angel Gabriel. Being well past child-bearing years and having never been able to conceive a child, Zechariah and Elizabeth had nearly given up hope of ever having a child of their own. But the angel appeared to Zechariah with an announcement about a remarkable birth: “…your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1:13). About six months later, Gabriel appeared to Mary with an announcement of another remarkable birth and this time, a miraculous conception: “…you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). Here are two divine announcements about the births of two baby boys—one to be born to a woman past the age of childbearing and one to an unmarried girl. But Zechariah and Mary responded in two different ways to the news.

At first, their responses may seem similar but taken in their context it becomes evident that their responses revealed two different heart conditions. Zechariah responded with skepticism. He asked, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years” (Luke 1:18). Gabriel’s rebuke makes it clear that Zechariah’s response was rooted in unbelief. He was not merely expressing surprise but was actually questioning the truthfulness of Gabriel’s message. Zechariah was punished for his unbelief by being mute until his son was born. Mary’s response, on the other hand, showed her trust in the word of the Lord and her total surrender to his will. She responded by asking, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Her question may sound similar to Zechariah’s, but we see from Gabriel’s answer and Mary’s response that her question was about the means by which this would come to pass, not a question about whether it would happen. Gabriel answered her question, and then she responded again by saying, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Mary questioned how this promise would come about but she did not doubt that it would be so and she expressed her complete surrender to the Lord’s will, knowing what it could mean for her reputation to have a child outside of marriage.

What about you? What about me? How do we respond to God’s word and his promises? Do we respond with skepticism like Zechariah, or do we respond with acceptance and total surrender like Mary? Even if not directly through an angel, the fact is that God has sent his word to us too. How will you and how will I respond to his word today?