October 26 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Luke 1:66-80

⁶⁶And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.
⁶⁷And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,
⁶⁸Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
⁶⁹And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
⁷⁰As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
⁷¹That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
⁷²To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
⁷³The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
⁷⁴That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
⁷⁵In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
⁷⁶And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
⁷⁷To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
⁷⁸Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,
⁷⁹To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
⁸⁰And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

Devotional:

With such unusual surrounding his birth, of course the neighbors wondered what kind of person this baby John would grow up to be! Zacharias, his tongue loosened, burst out in praise to God, prophesying in the power of the Holy Ghost. He blessed God and traced His revelation in the past through prophets of old. He told the infant boy he too would be a prophet, preparing the way for the Lord Himself.

The child grew. He became 'strong in spirit' (1:80). The Lord was with him. His promise to the parents would be kept through this child.

As we today look at an infant does not this same question come to our mind: 'What mannr of child shall this be?' (1:66). We are anxious about his well-being and his personal equipment. We wonder about his vocation. But most important: will he be a prophet of God?

We cannot know. We have not had a messnger from God speak to us about our child. We do, however, have within our power the training of this child to equip him to learn of God. Let us recognize the possibility that he might become a prophet of God. And let us pray to that end!