26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. Luke 1:26-38
CONSIDER: If you believe in God, The One True God, then it should be safe to say that you also believe with God, nothing is impossible. It might be easy to say out loud but reread that statement again and ask yourself if you really believe that. Often times we think of the really big things that God has done like Moses and the Red Sea, Noah and the ark and so on but sometimes we forget that these stories were of real people’s lives. God has been doing big, seemingly impossible things through regular people like you and me and has been for thousands of years. We see him do it through Mary in The Christmas Story we all know well but have you seen him do it in your life? In Mary’s story, we read that the angel appears to her and says in Luke 1:28, “Greetings you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.” We also read in the next verse that Mary, “is greatly troubled by his words.” Why is she troubled that the angel would say such nice things about her? How would you feel if an angel of the Lord appeared to you? You might be afraid at the sight of an angel but would you be “troubled” by the compliments about you or would you feel proud that are “highly favored?” Maybe you’d even feel comfort in those words knowing that you are favored and that the Lord is with you, but Mary did not! When Mary heard those words she understood that she was being put into “Moses status.” Maybe she didn’t feel like she was good enough and thought to herself… me? What would God want with me? How could he use me like he used Moses, Joshua, or Noah? She knew how God used people in the past and she probably not only felt inadequate but also afraid. She knew that God may be asking her to do something difficult, something that would put her out of her comfort zone, but she also had no idea how her yes to God would change the entire world forever. I don’t have to tell you how Mary’s story ends. God uses her to mother the Savior of the world. Mary could have let fear grip her. She could have run and hidden from Joseph. She could have tried to run away from all that God had called her to do, but Mary did not let fear control her. When we read The Christmas Story, Mary’s yes should inspire us. Her conscious choice and answer of, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled,” should shake us! We should read her story and be reminded that God has plans for each of our lives and that we too need to answer him with, “yes.” We too need to say, “ I am the Lord’s servant.” We too need to understand that we might be afraid, that what God is calling us to do might be difficult but we also need to remember that, “The Lord is with us.” We need to remember that when fear sets in we can pray to the one that, “highly favors” us. We need to remember that if God is for us that the impossible becomes possible. That God can do something in our lives or with our lives that we could have never EVER imagined. God wants to use you to do something big. Are you listening when he calls you or do you run away in fear? It’s never too late to answer God with Yes. He is with you! May he use your life to do the impossible for His glory.
PRAY: Heavenly Father, help us to answer, “yes”, when you call us. Continue to remind us that with you, nothing is impossible!
