“In the sixth month of Elizabethʼs pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, a descendant of David, and the virginʼs name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting. So the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God! Listen: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.” Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God.
“And look, your relative Elizabeth has also become pregnant with a son in her old age - although she was called barren, she is now in her sixth month! For nothing will be impossible with God.” So Mary said, “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:26-38)
We see it in Luke chapter 1 the angel Gabriel comes and tells Mary she will bear his son. Gabriel tells her she is highly favored. And Mary, at 15 or 16 year old common, pheasant girl thinks, “Highly favored. Impossible!”
Gabriel tells her she will have a son and be impregnated by the Holy Spirit and name him Jesus, he will be the Son of the most high God. Mary answered, “How will this happen since I am a virgin?” It is impossible!!! The Angel told her, “Nothing is impossible with God.” And Mary Believed, and said “Here I am your servant, Let it be as you said.”
Joseph, he met the girl of his dreams. He had hopes and plans of settling down in the nice, quiet suburbs and starting a family with Mary. Look what happened! The Angel tells him his wife is pregnant wife the child of God! What?!? All of his friends were like, “Ya right” Joseph thought, “That is impossible!!!! But Joseph did the hard thing and believed.
The Bible is a story of hardship and suffering and difficulty and trying faith.
Mary and Joseph were having the child of God and look how hard it was for them. If any couple should have had it easy having a child it would have been them. So if having and raising the child of God was hard, if their life was full of difficulties and challenges, why do you think raising your children and your life should be easy?
The Bible, the story of God is full of people who continued to believe in the possibilities of God in the face of impossible things. And what I want to encourage you with as we head into Christmas. Is that God is able to overcome the situations, circumstances, challenges, or whatever it may be in your life right now that you are facing.
That God is still a God of impossible things. He still makes the impossible possible.
And Christmas is the moment to awake from your sleep, and open up your life to Jesus Christ, and come to grips with the fact that our ways have come up short, and that they are not working. And despite our best efforts, things are not turning out like we planned. And like Mary, we need to yield to the sovereignty of God, let his Spirit and love overshadow us, and say, “Here I am Lord, let it be so in my life.” To invite Jesus Christ to be our savior and our Lord. And to bring us into the life he came to earth to give us.
It won’t be easy, but it will be gloriously good!
My Family, I pray you will let this new year be an awakening of your life.
Maybe you have believed before, maybe you have been baptized, maybe in some way you had an association with Jesus, through friends, family members, a spouse. Or maybe an association or relationship with a church. Maybe you have had a relationship with Christianity, but not so a deep intimate relationship with God. I pray this is the year, this is the time for Jesus to be born, reborn in your heart. For you to trust in God in a way like you’ve never trusted in God before. I pray this year will be a4 time for Jesus to make new wine in you! You do not have to even bring old wine, all you have to do is bring water, or even sour grapes, and he will turn it into wine, and not just any wine, but the best wine. And not just a little wine but barrels full of it. And turn your dry life into a fountain of life in which living waters flow out of it, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends and Merry Christmas
I want to encourage you to join me by also sharing with us your thoughts, comments, reflections, and prayers you received from today’s reading in the comment box below.
As the year draws to an end, please give and help Nancy and I help them!
My wife Nancy and I in our ministries are pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this season in our lives and that of our family and ODC. Please partner and support us and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation now for next year, or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You Thank You!