December 12, 2021
One of my favorite parts of the story of the birth of our Savior, is when the angel told Mary she would have this baby Jesus. “During the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent from God’s presence to an unmarried girl named Mary, living in Nazareth, a village in Galilee. She was engaged to a man named Joseph, a true descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Rejoice, beloved young woman, for the Lord is with you and you are anointed with great favor.”
Mary was deeply troubled over the words of the angel and bewildered over what this may mean for her. But the angel reassured her, saying, “Do not yield to your fear, Mary, for the Lord has found delight in you and has chosen to surprise you with a wonderful gift. You will become pregnant with a baby boy, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be supreme and will be known as the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will enthrone him as King on the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign as King of Israel forever, and his reign will have no limit.”
Mary said, “But how could this happen? I am still a virgin!” Gabriel answered, “The Spirit of Holiness will fall upon you and almighty God will spread his shadow of power over you in a cloud of glory! This is why the child born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your aged aunt, Elizabeth, has also become pregnant with a son. The ‘barren one’ is now in her sixth month. Not one promise from God is empty of power. Nothing is impossible with God!”
Then Mary responded, saying, “Yes! I will be a mother for the Lord! As his servant, I accept whatever he has for me. May everything you have told me come to pass.” And the angel left her.” Luke 1:26-38 Passion Bible
Mary was startled and didn’t understand what the Angel was saying to her but do you notice what the angel said? “Do not yield to your fear,”. Your fear. Wow! When we have fear it is our fear we have chosen to yield to. That’s a powerful truth to mediate on. Mary believed. When she didn’t yield to her fear, Mary had peace. She didn’t struggle with doubt, ask friends what they thought about this word from the Lord, or ask the angel to give her a few days to consider this. Her heart was prepared. Her heart was already full of His peace and His promises. The Lord found delight in her and it had nothing to do with what she did but because of her relationship with her God. She was about to have a shift in life.
The last couple of years all of us have had a life shift, an actual “suddenly” that effected our lives in some way. The Word tells us what the reaping and outcome of a godless nation and world would look like. He has told us through His Word how to prepare our hearts for such a time. The world at the time of the birth of Jesus was much worse than now. Mary didn’t have a relationship with Jesus yet like we are able to but she had a relationship with the Father and wanted what He had for her. Mary was taken back by the angel, as most people were. When an angel appeared to anyone the following words were “Do not fear”. Mary didn’t yield to fear so her heart was open to say, “Yes! I will be a mother for the Lord! As his servant, I accept whatever he has for me. May everything you have told me come to pass.” As His servant, I accept whatever He has for me. That is how I want to answer Him when He speaks to my heart. That is my desire.
How can I prepare my heart to always answer like this? First, I must BELIEVE His Word and second obey His Word. The number one most powerful truth that I have had to receive and believe in my life is that I am loved and precious to my Savior. Jesus longs to have an intimate, close relationship with each person. He wants to be our closest friend. I’m believing this truth one day at a time. For 40 years of my life I didn’t understand a close, intimate, loving relationship with Jesus. I only knew love by works and conditional love. I worked hard to do good, be good, so I could be loved - by God, by Jesus, my parents, my family, my husband, my children, everyone. I didn’t know love was unconditional, especially when it was from God and Jesus. So, it’s taken time and day by day changing my heart to trust and believe. Unbelief brings fear which brings lack of peace. Our world today is so full of fear. The enemy knows fear will dilute the power of His love in our hearts. His love cannot not be diluted down to nothing but the lie that we believe that brings fear effects how we see His love.
“Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection.” 1 John 4:18
“For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love, and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7
The last few months I cannot say that I answered as readily as Mary. I did yield to MY fear. We all do at some point but the answer is not to stay there but to spend so much time in His presence that you know that you know how much you are loved my Him. If He says we can do this, we can. He gave us a way to live and walk in all of His promises but we have to trust, believe and obey. When we give in to the power of deceit, we get going in in whirlwind of waves that tosses us to and fro, up and down. If we are not putting His truths in our heart, meditating on His promises, letting the Holy Spirit flow through us and not being still to know He is I Am, we end up with some fear. Knowing without a shadow of doubt that He loves me no matter what and that His love is unconditional changed how I can come to the throne of grace.
“And since we now have a magnificent High Priest to welcome us into God’s house, we come closer to God and approach him with an open heart, fully convinced that nothing will keep us at a distance from him. For our hearts have been sprinkled with blood to remove impurity, and we have been freed from an accusing conscience. Now we are clean, unstained, and presentable to God inside and out! So now wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within us, knowing that God always keeps his promises!” Hebrews 10:21-23
I now choose to seek Him daily, hourly, minute by minute. I let His love saturate my heart so I can trust, believe and obey His words for me. “You’re my place of quiet retreat, and your wraparound presence becomes my shield as I wrap myself in your Word!”
Psalm 119:114
“So, what does all this mean? If God has determined to stand with us, tell me, who then could ever stand against us? For God has proved his love by giving us his greatest treasure, the gift of his Son. And since God freely offered him up as the sacrifice for us all, he certainly won’t withhold from us anything else he has to give.” Romans 8:31-32
During this Christmas season take extra time to seek Him. Desire to be as prepared in your heart as Mary was. To trust the Lord with all your heart, to believe him and know not one promise from God is empty of power. Nothing is impossible with God! His love for us is beyond our comprehension but with Him living in us and through His grace and the Holy Spirit we can have all He has for us if we choose to. Don’t yield to your fears. Cast your fears on Him.
“We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.” 1 John 4:16 Mary knew God’s love. We can know God’s unconditional love through Jesus. I want to say to Him, “As your servant, I accept whatever You have for me.
One of my favorite parts of the story of the birth of our Savior, is when the angel told Mary she would have this baby Jesus. “During the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent from God’s presence to an unmarried girl named Mary, living in Nazareth, a village in Galilee. She was engaged to a man named Joseph, a true descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Rejoice, beloved young woman, for the Lord is with you and you are anointed with great favor.”
Mary was deeply troubled over the words of the angel and bewildered over what this may mean for her. But the angel reassured her, saying, “Do not yield to your fear, Mary, for the Lord has found delight in you and has chosen to surprise you with a wonderful gift. You will become pregnant with a baby boy, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be supreme and will be known as the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will enthrone him as King on the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign as King of Israel forever, and his reign will have no limit.”
Mary said, “But how could this happen? I am still a virgin!” Gabriel answered, “The Spirit of Holiness will fall upon you and almighty God will spread his shadow of power over you in a cloud of glory! This is why the child born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your aged aunt, Elizabeth, has also become pregnant with a son. The ‘barren one’ is now in her sixth month. Not one promise from God is empty of power. Nothing is impossible with God!”
Then Mary responded, saying, “Yes! I will be a mother for the Lord! As his servant, I accept whatever he has for me. May everything you have told me come to pass.” And the angel left her.” Luke 1:26-38 Passion Bible
Mary was startled and didn’t understand what the Angel was saying to her but do you notice what the angel said? “Do not yield to your fear,”. Your fear. Wow! When we have fear it is our fear we have chosen to yield to. That’s a powerful truth to mediate on. Mary believed. When she didn’t yield to her fear, Mary had peace. She didn’t struggle with doubt, ask friends what they thought about this word from the Lord, or ask the angel to give her a few days to consider this. Her heart was prepared. Her heart was already full of His peace and His promises. The Lord found delight in her and it had nothing to do with what she did but because of her relationship with her God. She was about to have a shift in life.
The last couple of years all of us have had a life shift, an actual “suddenly” that effected our lives in some way. The Word tells us what the reaping and outcome of a godless nation and world would look like. He has told us through His Word how to prepare our hearts for such a time. The world at the time of the birth of Jesus was much worse than now. Mary didn’t have a relationship with Jesus yet like we are able to but she had a relationship with the Father and wanted what He had for her. Mary was taken back by the angel, as most people were. When an angel appeared to anyone the following words were “Do not fear”. Mary didn’t yield to fear so her heart was open to say, “Yes! I will be a mother for the Lord! As his servant, I accept whatever he has for me. May everything you have told me come to pass.” As His servant, I accept whatever He has for me. That is how I want to answer Him when He speaks to my heart. That is my desire.
How can I prepare my heart to always answer like this? First, I must BELIEVE His Word and second obey His Word. The number one most powerful truth that I have had to receive and believe in my life is that I am loved and precious to my Savior. Jesus longs to have an intimate, close relationship with each person. He wants to be our closest friend. I’m believing this truth one day at a time. For 40 years of my life I didn’t understand a close, intimate, loving relationship with Jesus. I only knew love by works and conditional love. I worked hard to do good, be good, so I could be loved - by God, by Jesus, my parents, my family, my husband, my children, everyone. I didn’t know love was unconditional, especially when it was from God and Jesus. So, it’s taken time and day by day changing my heart to trust and believe. Unbelief brings fear which brings lack of peace. Our world today is so full of fear. The enemy knows fear will dilute the power of His love in our hearts. His love cannot not be diluted down to nothing but the lie that we believe that brings fear effects how we see His love.
“Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection.” 1 John 4:18
“For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love, and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7
The last few months I cannot say that I answered as readily as Mary. I did yield to MY fear. We all do at some point but the answer is not to stay there but to spend so much time in His presence that you know that you know how much you are loved my Him. If He says we can do this, we can. He gave us a way to live and walk in all of His promises but we have to trust, believe and obey. When we give in to the power of deceit, we get going in in whirlwind of waves that tosses us to and fro, up and down. If we are not putting His truths in our heart, meditating on His promises, letting the Holy Spirit flow through us and not being still to know He is I Am, we end up with some fear. Knowing without a shadow of doubt that He loves me no matter what and that His love is unconditional changed how I can come to the throne of grace.
“And since we now have a magnificent High Priest to welcome us into God’s house, we come closer to God and approach him with an open heart, fully convinced that nothing will keep us at a distance from him. For our hearts have been sprinkled with blood to remove impurity, and we have been freed from an accusing conscience. Now we are clean, unstained, and presentable to God inside and out! So now wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within us, knowing that God always keeps his promises!” Hebrews 10:21-23
I now choose to seek Him daily, hourly, minute by minute. I let His love saturate my heart so I can trust, believe and obey His words for me. “You’re my place of quiet retreat, and your wraparound presence becomes my shield as I wrap myself in your Word!”
Psalm 119:114
“So, what does all this mean? If God has determined to stand with us, tell me, who then could ever stand against us? For God has proved his love by giving us his greatest treasure, the gift of his Son. And since God freely offered him up as the sacrifice for us all, he certainly won’t withhold from us anything else he has to give.” Romans 8:31-32
During this Christmas season take extra time to seek Him. Desire to be as prepared in your heart as Mary was. To trust the Lord with all your heart, to believe him and know not one promise from God is empty of power. Nothing is impossible with God! His love for us is beyond our comprehension but with Him living in us and through His grace and the Holy Spirit we can have all He has for us if we choose to. Don’t yield to your fears. Cast your fears on Him.
“We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.” 1 John 4:16 Mary knew God’s love. We can know God’s unconditional love through Jesus. I want to say to Him, “As your servant, I accept whatever You have for me.
