Far too many people in our world today are fearful and anxious and worried because they don’t know what’s in God’s policy manual, the Bible. In this book, there are more than 7,000 promises from God to you about your health, your relationships, your career, your past and present and future, and about forgiveness from sin and eternal life. But if you don’t know those promises, you can’t claim them! When you go through life not knowing what God has promised you in his Word, you will be filled with anxiety.

To overcome fear, you must know, trust, and remember what God has promised to do in your life. That’s what gave Mary confidence.

Elizabeth noticed this. When Mary came to visit her, she told Mary, “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (Luke 1:45 NIV). Mary believed God would keep his promises. That’s what gave this young peasant girl enormous confidence in an incredibly fearful situation. She believed God would keep his word.

The most important promise God made in the Bible is that when you die, you will go to heaven if you trust in the Son he sent at Christmas. That’s called the promise of eternal life. It’s in John 3:16, the most famous verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV).

But Jesus didn’t just come to earth to forgive your sins. He also came to eliminate your fears here and now. Hebrews 2:15 says that Jesus took on humanity so he could “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (NIV).

It reminds me of the line of that famous carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

Every hope restored. Every fear defeated. This is the greatest promise you can claim this Christmas.