Blessed is she who believed
Blessed is she who believed.
Faith is a battleground.
Sometimes with no cease fires and no days off.
Once God has made a promise to us, we must believe and continue in the path of believing. Anything less than that and we are subject to suffering defeat.
We often don’t hear Mary, the mother of Jesus described as a warrior.
In humility, and yet with great courage, Mary, knowingly stepped into a position of honour that she knew was going to be costly. Unmarried and living under the law. The potential repercussions were very high. Who would believe her report? So, when the words, “...be it unto me according to thy word” left Mary’s lips, this was Mary enlisting herself for service. Stepping into the army of God as a general in perhaps the greatest battle ever fought.
When we read what the angel said to Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee..” naturally we are drawn to think that this power would only be the enablement for Mary’s ability to conceive based on her question in the preceding verse, “how shall this be seeing, I know not a man?”
However, a closer look and we see that there are two things mentioned by the angel in that statement, one is “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee” and the other is “the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” It wouldn’t be enough to have the ability conceive the son of God, if the promise of the Messiah being born was going to manifest, Mary needed the highest level of supernatural protection by the Most High God. Her role – an obedient vessel, full of faThis same supernatural protection many of us have sought this year as we have prayed through Psalms 91, seeking to be kept in “the rest of the shadow of the Almighty.” Stepping outside has meant facing unknown and risky circumstances without anything but our confidence in the promise of God’s protection.
Even the skilled warrior David knew he needed this protection and would not be able to prevail without it. In Psalm 17:8-9, he cries out to God, -“Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings, from the wicked who oppress me, from my deadly enemies who surround me.” The great warrior that killed Goliath knew that he could not face life’s battles without God’s protection.
For the joy set before her, Mary believed that God would be enough for her in every way. She was prepared for the possibility of being made an outcast by her people, the shame, life as a single woman and all the difficulties that would follow. In addition to what would be her personal challenges, what was more and unknown to Mary at the time, were other difficulties such as running away from Herod’s evil plans.
What we can learn from Mary in this portion is that, when we step out in faith on God’s promises, things may look contrary in the natural. However, we can be confident in God’s ability to help us conceive that which he has placed on the inside of us and his faithfulness in watching over his word to perform it. “For no word from God will ever fail.”
Our position is to allow our faith to see the invisible and believe the impossible before we can feel it. If we are to carry the promises to term and receive God’s best, we have an accountability not just to our present self but to our future self. When all forces are working against us outwardly, like Mary we can rejoice in believing and even sing songs full of positive affirmations “From now on all generations will call me blessed.”
Remember Faith + Patience = Promise.
The Lord’s Blessing. Merry Christmas.
Greetings from Arvin
