How do we react when we are faced with a daunting task? When we read the promises of God in the Holy scriptures, how do we believe when reality is not in unity with them?
The caption of this article is an excerpt from Mary’s response to Angel Gabriel when he delivered God’s good will message to her according to Luke 1:30-33 “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS.He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
When Mary heard what the Angel said, her human mind could not process it. Did she just hear conception without copulation? How is that possible? Humanly speaking, it is impossible! What point was Angel Gabriel driving at, because none of all he said made sense to her.
Further more, he included she would not only conceive and birth God’s Son, the Child birthed by her would be great and have an unending kingdom. These messages were too ambiguous for Mary to understand. They were rather preposterous to her. She had no other option but to ask the angel, HOW SHALL THESE THINGS BE?
Going down history lane in the Bible, I observed that whenever God give directives to his servants, he always start by allaying their fears before he assigned them divine tasks. He does this because fear is bound to overshadow their thoughts when they considered the daunting nature of those divine tasks, or doubt the unimaginable blessings God promised them in bleak situations.
For example, consider when Sarah heard the good news from the angelic visitors, her senescent self laughed in disbelief. How could she conceive at such an old age? That was meant to be a Joke, right?
How about Joshua? God did not cease to remind him to exterminate fear, if he must fulfill the divine mandate.
Back to Mary’s question, how shall these things be? The Angel wasn’t just sent to deliver God’s message, but also to provide answers to her questions. Therefore, he readily replied her,”… The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God…..“(Luke 1:35 )
It wasn’t until Mary understood that the whole process would be divinely orchestrated that she replied “… Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word…” She decided to sit back in faith and watch how God will unravel this mystery.
Dear Friends, what has God promised you that looks unrealistic? What vision has He painted in your precious minds that looks impossible to attain in your terrain? Don’t forget that the things man considers impossible are possible with God. Let’s not be fearful or worry over how these great things shall be in our lives, God has made provisions for them already. What we need is active faith in his promises.
All we need to do is to keep appropriating the provision he has made available. If we would keep asking for his power and keep advancing by God’s grace towards our God given vision, it would materialize right before our eyes, like it did for Mary.
When Mary understood how those things will be, she vanquished her doubts and chose to wait in faith for the fulfillment of the good tidings. She kept on keeping herself because she received divine validation despite the condescension associated with being a Nazarene. It meant a lot to her when she was divinely tagged a woman filled with grace and most favoured of God. Her society might have tagged her otherwise, but that didn’t matter anymore to her.
Dear Friends, the society might have subtly or blatantly configured unworthiness on your personality to an extent that when God calls you worthy of his precious promises, you find it difficult to believe. It is high time you chose God’s validation and decide to keep the faith of Jesus Christ, while waiting for the fulfillment of his promises.
As Christians, the world do not define our worth; Only God does. If you have exonerated yourself from God’s great promises because you feel it can’t be possible especially to a person like yourself, I want you to remember that if God can give up his Son for your sake, there is nothing greater than that. He will bring those promises to pass if you choose to trust him, while remaining in his love.
The promises can only be fulfilled when you remain within the confinements of the promise’s conditions. Mary remained chaste. Joshua remained courageous. Sarah remained Abraham’s wife. If you have been called from fearfulness to boldness or from sinfulness to holiness, obey with immediate effect because that is when God’s power can bring his promises to reality in your life.
Therefore, when we have understood like Mary did, let us submit ourselves to God for his will to be done in our lives, through the power of the Holy ghost, like it was done in Mary’s life.
God bless you.